


Hate

by Ikasury



Series: Conflagration AU [4]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Bunnies, Cadbury if you Squint, F/M, Faunus!Cardin, Fluff makes it better, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Rabbit Tail, Your Father is a Jerk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2018-05-27 09:39:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 37,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6279319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ikasury/pseuds/Ikasury
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cardin has a secret... too bad Velvet is the one that finds out, of course in her opinion its absolutely cute!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hate

**Author's Note:**

> This actually was written before Conflagration (After Deluge) and inspired the bit in the strip contest with Cardin and Velvet... so... i kinda include it in that crazy universe :P
> 
> a bit of a weird spin away from my original Cadbury idea, but hey! why not weird new things! :D
> 
> Dis: RWBY and such is owned/made/created by RoosterTeeth and Monty Oum, all hail the All-Father of Remnant!

Hate

It’s easier to Hate than it is to Love… at least that’s what people like to teach their kids.

It’s one of the reasons Love is so strange in the world. Sure, there are tons of stories, but they’re just stories, they don’t make any damn sense and people just pretend they understand them. Then there’s war, people fighting over ideas, hating one another more than anything for any reason they can grab. Peace is hard, war is easy. It’s easier to throw a punch or hurt someone than extend a hand and try to understand them.

Hate is easy, Love is hard.

Velvet was starting to figure this out. She’d been taught her whole life to not react to violence with violence as that just spurned on a long chain of hatred. She tried to meet every affront to her person with a kind of dignity and kindness that would eventually make even the worst people stop in the long run. She tried to extend a hand in friendship, or at least peace, instead of fanning any flames further that might spark more outbursts of hatred or prejudice.

That was getting _really_ strained every time she had to deal with Cardin Winchester.

Yes, after a while the other members of his team had given up their taunts and jeers, either being reprimanded enough or losing interest, but Cardin never did. It was almost like he had something to prove by showing just how vicious humans could be. It made him a very dislikable person and wholly unpopular.

She tried to avoid him when she could. He greatly confused her. What in the WORLD could have possibly happened to this guy to drive him so wholly to be such a… a… a DICK!

She grunted behind a tree trying to calm her thoughts.

Velvet liked to wonder the outside grounds of Beacon and had a knack for finding a ton of little spots to hide away in. Maybe it was her bunny nature but she enjoyed it all the same, it gave her a great opportunity to get away from jerks like Cardin and listen to nature.

Okay, truthfully she _did_ often run across _scenes_ best left unspoken of… or ever _seen_ and she definitely heard a lot of things others probably didn’t want anyone to know. But she wasn’t _really_ a gossip so such a thing wasn’t _bad_ per say…

Currently she was sitting behind a tree in one of Beacon’s gardens. There were rows of bushes and flowers lining the path and from the path side it looked all fairly solid and no one would bother thinking one could get to the other side but she was Velvet Scarlatina and she had her ways of moving about places and never seeming to touch a thing! Stealth helped a lot!

It was also because of this she felt she was alone enough and wouldn’t be found out so she could finally get a chance to read some of those books Blake lent her-

“Shit!” a deep growl grunted from not far behind her tree.

She immediately froze, lowering the book and wiggling her bunny ears. She recognized that voice… why did she recognize that voice?

Suddenly something darted off past her, jumping the hedges with ease and running off into the forest.

She would curse her natural curiosity later, what was this and what was going on?

Using all her natural stealth she followed the thing barreling through the underbrush. She caught sight of the armor but not much else as she was sticking to the ground in her pursuit and didn’t see much above the waist.

It looked like a guy… they weren’t wearing a skirt but those were some tight black pants with metal on the sides of his hips and where had she seen that red sash before?

She ducked behind another tree when the person seemed to finally stop.

He frantically looked around and ducked into some bushes.

She honestly didn’t see the point in further hiding, they were far enough away from the path no one would be able to just turn this way and find either of them.

“Damnit!” the gruff voice complained as his hands moved down to undo the sash about his waist, “Why the hell did that bastard have to hit so hard!”

Velvet blushed when she realized she was staring at this guy’s ass… she quickly shook her head, slapping herself mentally. She wasn’t staring! Just curious! Yea!

The red sash came off and it looked like there was a tear in the black fabric, both on the pants and the shirt.

- _That’s funny, why does that look brown and not skin tone like the rest of him?_ \- her head tilted confused by what her eyes were telling her.

Then the guy pulled off his chest armor and she finally got a good look at the crest on the front as he dropped it unceremoniously.

- _Oh shit!_ \- her body went into full panic as her eyes ran over the golden bird crest of house Winchester. This was _Cardin_ she had followed! Into the middle of the forest! - _Where he’s taking off his shirt!_ -

Her face went red as the black under shirt went floating in her vision. At this point she was stuck, paralyzed and while her flight instincts told her to run she found she could not move. Blame her for reading Blake’s damn smutty books or her teenage girl hormones, her brain was not registering this was the jerk that liked to pull her ears as her eyes trailed up that well-toned back and shoulders then followed his beefy arms as they went down and - _Oh my god he’s taking off his pants!_ -

Well not _fully_ … just down enough that her eyes were drawn to a pair of black briefs and…

Velvet blinked a few times. - _What the hell is that…?_ -

Just above Cardin’s basically speedo-like black briefs was a brown patch of fur, just above his tail bone… only it moved… and as soon as everything was off and he reached back to touch it the thing wiggled and Velvet could feel her whole body blush.

That was a tail. Cardin Winchester had a tail.

- _Not just ANY tail!!_ \- her mind screamed as he moved it about experimentally, flicking it up and down in a way she couldn’t take her eyes off of as it basically flashed her the thick brown fur on top and then went up high and she saw a strip of white underneath that made a lot of noise go off in her head.

Cardin Winchester had a bunny tail.

“Hsssh,” the boy sucked in his teeth as he moved his hands, wiggling his tail to the side after finding the spot that hurt. There was a cut on the side and it hurt like hell, not to mention it felt like the damn thing had been crushed. “Stupid thing…” he growled, couldn’t just have avoided the slip could he? No had to get literally kicked in the ass so hard that bitch nearly broke his fucking- “ARGH!!” he had to straighten up and throw his hands up in pure frustration.

Damnit! Why did he have to be born with the stupid thing! Why couldn’t he just be normal! Just a regular fucking human! Noooo his mom had to have some dirty faunus blood in her from way back when and he had to be the one stuck with the damn results!

He whipped around and struck a tree with both fists.

“Eep!”

Huh?

Since when did trees squeak?

Looking down Cardin came face to face with that bunny girl he picked on earlier in the year.

“Uh-hi!” she squeaked, waving her hand as she was scrunched in a nervous ball and her wide brown eyes showed just how terrified she was of this situation.

A situation that involved him with his pants down to his thighs, his briefs about level with her ears and oh yea- _HIS GODDAMN TAIL STICKING OUT!_

The two just stared at each other for a long second.

Her ears bobbed, his tail twitched, they both turned redder by the second but both were too freaked out to move or even break eye contact.

“I should,” she pointed behind herself and tried to move.

With an angry growl he immediately grabbed one of her ears, causing her to squeak in pain and flinch, making him just clinch his teeth and get more pissed off, “The hell are you doing here!!”

She was in a defensive ball, eyes scrunched shut, “L-Let go!”

His jaw clinched, his tail twitched, and with a roar he did as she asked, turning around and skulking away to where his armor was, “Damnit!” he sat down and punched the ground, “Just fucking great!” he did it again.

Daring to open her eyes, Velvet looked at the angry boy. His back was facing her giving her a full view of his back and the fluffy little appendage that certainly shouldn’t have been there. Reaching up she rubbed her ear that he grabbed and dared to stand, looking at the boy.

He’d caused her so many problems and been such a jackass to her and other faunus…

But this? _THIS?_

Never in a million years would she have thought the biggest bully on campus was one of their own…

- _It makes no sense?_ \- brown brows furrowed as she looked the boy over. She’d never seen Cardin without a shirt on, not that she ever wanted to, but now…

He had scars, lots of them. Most looked old and covered up by newer ones. Some were big like a whip or something had been used on him, others small like cuts and a few were circles that looked like burns.

The sight brought up a well of sympathy she never thought she’d feel for the jerk.

“Don’t look at me like that,” the boy growled, apparently seeing her through the mirror on his armor in front of him, “Stupid animal…”

Now she was angry, “You’re one to talk!” boldly she took several steps forward and knelt down behind him causing the boy to stiffen.

“Don’t you dare-!!” he moved to elbow her but she just ducked. He tried the other side and she reached forward and grabbed his tail, “ACK!!”

Velvet giggled as he shot face first into the dirk, sticking his butt up in the air, ironically giving her easier access to his fluffy tail. She didn’t want to be mean, just see if this thing was real and how injured he was… the fact that she squeezed it and caused him to growl in pain was just karma, “Serves you right!”

Cardin growled into the dirt, “Let go you damn Faunus bitch!”

She ran her thumb along the spine of his tail, pushing the hair backwards and he seemed to jolt, “Funny, I seem to recall hearing that before…”

This time the bully just hit his fist on the ground, relenting to his new position; lying out as flat as he could while he was humiliatingly at the mercy of this damn rabbit-girl he used to pick on. - _Damnit, how did this day get so messed up…_ -

Velvet scooted to the side, poking his legs and letting him lie out flat, but quickly went back to his now erect tail, “Cardin…” her voice trailed as she bit her lips, not sure how to ask, “How did you-?”

“I was born with it!” he bit out, facing away from her, “Just like every one of you filthy mongrels!”

Her cheeks reddened as she pouted at him, _maybe_ tugging his tail, “I wasn’t asking that! I was going to ask what happened!” she ran her finger along the cut on the side of his tail and could feel it move fairly stiffly, “What did you do that got you this hurt that you ran out here in such a hurry?”

“Che,” the boy frowned into his arms, “Why’re you asking?” when she didn’t answer he just got angrier, “What, going to show me pity now? Huh! Gonna bawl or something about-OW!”

With her free hand Velvet swiftly punched him in the kidney, which she noticed had a bruise. The boy groaned and she made sure he could see her furious face reflected in his armor, “Stop with the act and just tell me what happened.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he mumbled into the ground.

Velvet just sighed, feeling around the appendage. She knew what she’d have to do but he wouldn’t like it, “This is going to hurt.”

“Huh?” he raised his head to see her looking at his tail seriously then felt her place her other hand on his hip, “Hey, what the hell do you think you’re-AAARRRRGGHHH!!!” he slammed his fists into the ground and tried not to yell too much.

Basically Velvet had pulled his tail. Not to be mean or anything but because the bones were dislocated and couldn’t heal properly unless set right, “Sorry, you kinda… basically…” there was a short snort, “Stubbed your tail.”

Cardin just groaned. He didn’t want to admit that for the first time in months it felt like there wasn’t some built up pressure at the base of his tail or a sharp pain. Oh, there was pain, _LOTS_ of it… just, not the same and it was dissipating.

With a small frown Velvet mostly let go of the fluffy appendage, running her finger along it absentmindedly causing him to twitch every so often as it was still quite sensitive, “This kind of thing happens a lot if you get it stuck in a certain way for too long or get hit here,” it wiggled slightly and she couldn’t help but giggle.

“Would you stop that,” the boy growled. She kept touching his fucking tail. The horrible thing, the damn bane of his existence… and she kept touching it and giggling. It was utterly humiliating.

“S-sorry,” she actually _scratched_ the base of it! There was a small diamond patch of hair around the base of his tail that faded out and she was _scratching_ it! She giggled again, “It’s just so cute!”

His entire body went red and worst of all his tail went straight up, “Shut up.”

“Cardin?” her voice was soft with worry.

“I SAID SHUT UP!” he punched the ground again. This was stupid! And wrong! All of it!! She’d probably go blab to everyone and he’d be the goddamn laughing stock! It’d be even worst then what he put up with right now!

They were silent for a long time.

Cardin turned away from his armor so he couldn’t see her but irritatingly enough he could still feel her damn hand on his tail. What the hell was her damn fascination with that horrible, ugly appendage of his?

Her fingers moved gently from the base of his tail to the tip, avoiding the cut on the side, and moving back down. She repeated the motion slowly and his body started to visibly relax.

After a while of this… torture, he couldn’t help but ask, “What’re you doing?”

 “Hmm?” she seemed to snap out of something, “Oh! Well, it wouldn’t do to just pull it out like I did without messaging the muscles, it helps a lot to flex them and move it about freely, not… keep it held up all the time…” her face slowly started to turn red.

“Tch,” her grunted facing away, “You talk like you know about this… _thing_ … but you don’t have one…” well as far as he knew. Wasn’t it Faunus only had one big animal feature? Some had more didn’t they?

“Mmhm,” she nodded, still mainly focused on playing with his fluffy tail, “I don’t have one but some of my family members do, hehe,” a hand rose up as she giggled behind it, “I got to hear them complain a lot, they always said I was lucky getting ears!” then hers twitched and she remembered who she was talking to, “Er, well, they thought so,” absentmindedly she reached up and rubbed one of her bunny ears, “Personally I’d rather have something I could hide better…”

“Heh.” The boy just kept looking away.

His indifference caused Velvet to pout at him. - _Honestly, he’s the biggest issue I’ve had since coming here…_ \- her brown eyes looked down where her hand was scratching his tail. - _Now this!_ \- she _really_ wanted to be mad at him, she really did… but his tail was just too damn cute! Of course the moment her eyes moved away she found the scars on his back and she sobered quickly.

On impulse she switched hands, _messaging_ his tail still and moving her right to trail along one of the biggest scars.

Cardin immediately tensed and roared at her, putting his hands down as if her were going to move, “DON’T TOUCH ME!!”

Immediately she pulled both of her hands back, frightened by the fierceness in his voice and the burning hatred in his eyes.

“W-where,” her voice seemed to find itself as her eyes were stuck on his, “Where did you get those scars?” gently her one of her hands pulled away from her chest and attempted to reach out to him. He just growled and turned away, sitting again with his back to her. Her brows furrowed and again she felt that errant sympathy for the jerk, “You don’t get scars like that from training…”

“Hmp,” he threw back a spiteful grunt, “Isn’t it obvious,” he nodded his head to the armor still sitting on the ground near them, bearing the Winchester crest, “Winchesters are hunters, humans that served during the great war and fought against the filthy animals…” his shoulders actually shook, “It’s our job to put them in their place, make sure they understand they aren’t one of us, aren’t equal to us, just damn half-breeds lucky to not be wiped out by _us_.”

A hand went to Velvet’s mouth as she tried to stem the feelings that rose up with each horrible word he spoke. Tears filled her eyes as she easily put things together. “Y-your parents… they **_did_** this to you?”

He said nothing, just facing ahead.

She was absolutely appalled! What kind of parents did this to their child! And if he was born like this, remembering his shout earlier, why would they be surprised? Didn’t that mean one of his parents was a Faunus too? - _Obviously not his father since the name so that means…_ \- she gasped, “Your mother… she was…?”

The boy just kept his face down but she could see the tension in his jaw and shoulders.

“So that means your father did this to you,” her hands lowered to her lap, her gaze following as well. It was such a sad story. He was born what he was but raised by such a horrible person, probably pounding into his head daily all his hate and rhetoric to the point he believed it. - _That means… he made him hate himself…_ \- That’s when Velvet looked up and studied his scars, maybe some of them were self-inflicted?

She couldn’t help her actions, scooting closer to the poor boy and reaching out…

“Don’t touch me,” his voice growled out but nowhere near as loud as it was before.

She hesitated a moment more before gathering her courage and reaching out, placing her hand on his back.

He visibly stiffened and growled at her.

She didn’t back down, a determined look coming over her face as she placed her hand flat on his back, over one of the larger scars, “I’m sorry…”

“Tch,” he growled, “Just take your hand off…”

Her hand moved, sending a shiver down his spine, “I’m sorry someone would do this to you and make you hate yourself and your own kind so much-”

“THEY’RE NOT MY KIND!!” he roared, standing up and taking several steps away, seething and gripping his hands into tight fists.

“Cardin!” she stood up as well, afraid and not sure what to do but now that she had some understanding behind why this boy was the way he was she couldn’t just let this go on.

“SHUT UP!!” he yelled back, still not turning towards her. He fumbled with his pants, pulling them up and fastening them around his waist, reaching back to stuff his tail in place so it wouldn’t move or be noticed.

Velvet winced, that must have been uncomfortable. - _No wonder he’s always in a bad mood, he’s probably in constant pain…_ \- he brushed right past her, going to grab his shirt and sash and she just knew he was going to fasten it tightly, keeping his tail stuck straight up and in an uncomfortable position flat against his back.

Without thinking she stepped forward and grabbed him around the arm, “STOP IT!!”

“GET OFF ME!!” he threw his arm back, trying to throw her off, but the bunny girl held on tightly, closing her eyes and trying to just stop him from hurting himself even more. Cardin seethed, raising his fist and turned to strike her.

She had her eyes closed and held onto his arm tighter, waiting for the hit.

It never came.

Velvet dared to crack open one eye. Cardin had his fist drawn back, ready to hit her but it was shaking, his lips were pulled back in a snarl with his jaws clinched, his brows low and threatening, all of it showing his anger and frustration. But his eyes were different. Those indigo orbs were narrow, trying so hard to hate like the rest of him but instead there were tears held at the edges.

Was she actually getting through to him?

Opening both eyes she blinked at him, surprised by his restraint, “Cardin,” her voice was low and soft and she could feel a deep blush forming on her cheeks, “I think your tail is really cute.”

His fist shook, his eyes widened and his whole body seemed to heat up as red passed over his cheeks.

He looked kind of cute flustered.

“Tch,” he lowered his fist roughly and turned away from her. What the hell was wrong with this girl!

With a light giggle, Velvet took advantage of him mostly turning away from her. While still holding one arm over his she reached behind him and tugged his pants down a bit, letting his tail be freer and it wiggled almost appreciatively.

“H-Hey!!” he jumped away from her, face still red and pissed off by her actions.

Now dislodged from him she giggled again, holding up both hands looking cute as her ears bobbed, “You really should put a hole or something in your pants so you can let it move about freely…”

He just growled and looked away, “You know I can’t do that…”

“Why not?” holding both her hands behind her she leaned to the side and tried to catch his gaze, something she never thought she’d do before.

She was getting too close again, Cardin tried to look away but his feet wouldn’t move, “I-I’m human… human’s don’t have…” he gulped, “Have… t-tails…”

She smiled with her eyes, reaching out to take his hand, ignoring as he jumped and tried to pull away, “Cardin,” she spoke softly, rubbing his hand, “You’re at Beacon, you’re an adult,” she moved to hold his hand with both of hers, looking at it instead of trying to catch his face, “You don’t have to be whatever your father said you’re _supposed_ to be anymore,” her ear twitched and when she looked up with a smile he was looking at her skeptically, “You can drop all of this and be who you _truly_ are…”

His hand clinched into a fist and he looked at the ground. so hard he wanted to just run away, pretend this never happened. Keep his name, keep the illusion, fall back on the hate from his old man and push her away… - _I’m human, I’m a Winchester, it doesn’t matter what I’ve been doing, what happened I’m supposed to be…_ -

One of her hands reached behind him again and started playing with his tail, causing her to giggle again.

Cardin growled, turning towards her with a glare, “Would you **_STOP_** that!”

Velvet couldn’t help it. An hour ago that look on his face would have sent her running for the hills, but right now? For whatever damnable reason she thought his anger was kind of cute. So instead of doing the sensible thing and running for the hills, she put one hand up and continued giggling at him.

“Argh!” frustrated beyond all reason by this-this-this **_GIRL!!_** He threw up both his hands in clinching fists near her head.

The second she realized what he was doing she squeaked and flinched.

But Cardin never grabbed her ears.

Peaking up she noticed his hands were close to where they had been, his hands opened with fingers clinched and a look of pure hatred on his face…

But it was like he was frozen and couldn’t go ahead and do it.

After a few seconds of standing there and looking pissed, doing nothing, he ended up just slapping his hands over his eyes and screaming something incoherent.

Okay, he was definitely starting to scare her again.

“Goddamnit!!” his hands lowered around his mouth and he glared at her before finally pulling them away, “I’ve been trying… **_TRYING_** to do this whole bullshit ‘be a better person’ thing from fucking Jauney-boy, **_trying_** to not bother anyone no matter how much I want to punch them in the face, then you come along and you just **_have_** to see this!! See **_me_** like **_this!!_** ” he waved his hands out wide, spinning around so he could walk away a bit and ironically giving her full view of his tail again.

She giggled as it flicked at her.

“AND you’re fucking **_GIGGLING!!”_** he turned around and stomped right back to her, glaring down at her with the most frustrated, angry face around, “And the worst?! You tell me to just accept it! Accept **_this!_** ” he turned around again, pointing at his little fluffy brown tail.

On impulse Velvet tried to reach out and pet it again but he turned around too fast and she now ended up even closer to him than before. Her face properly turned a few shades redder.

He glared down at her, “Is that what you want me to do?” he threw one hand out, “Just throw away my entire life, everything I’ve known and thought of and show off this fucking tail like its goddamn normal?”

Adorable brown eyes just blinked at him, “It _is_ really cute…”

He slapped a hand to his face, rubbing his eyes, “You’re going to get me killed…”

Biting her lip, and trying not to giggle at the way he was acting, she reached out and grabbed his other hand, “Cardin,” her soft voice implored, “If you _really_ want to change, be someone better,” she noticed his fingers split over his eyes and one of his eyes was staring at her. She smiled brightly, “Then stop hiding who you are, let go of all this pain and hate you inherited and just…” suddenly she looked down, feeling her cheeks warm as she rubbed his hand, “Open up and trust…”

He stared at her. After a moment he lowered his hand and just stared at her a good long while. She was absolutely fucking nuts. If he let this out… if he admitted what he was… what he was feeling… it’d destroy everything around him. He’d be disowned, probably killed, at the very least cut off from his racist family and never spoken to again. - _is it worth it?_ -

Looking down at Velvet, a Faunus girl he’d picked on before, made her life miserable and was all around just a complete dick to her… yet here she was… being _nice_ to him, not even caring so much what he hid, even accepting it fairly quickly, when he sure as hell didn’t deserve it.

He was a complete jerk. Jaune showed him that, showed how weak and pathetic he was too. He _was_ trying to not be such an asshole to everyone but it…

“It’s hard,” he looked away from her sweet face, unconsciously gripping her hand. He needed something right now, some kind of guidance and frankly she was the only one here.

Velvet just smiled at him, “It’s supposed to be,” she gripped his hand back, looking down with a blush on her face, “Hatred is easy, that’s why people do it, but love…” her hands trembled, “Love is hard, that’s why there isn’t enough of it…”

For a moment she felt his hand heat up before he pulled it away and turned around, “I-I never said ANYTHING about love!! Y-you stupid rabbit!”

For a moment she blinked, then noticed his whole upper body seemed to have turned red and his tail was sticking straight up, very annoyed. She giggled again, “I-it’s just an old saying,” she waved her hand dismissively.

“Tch!” he kept his face away, trying not to look at her.

Bringing her hand down, Velvet looked at the poor boy again with sympathy, “It’ll be hard,” she grabbed her hands behind her back, bouncing a bit, “But I think it’d be better for you to move forward, away from your past,” an actual frown spread on her face as Cardin turned around, “People… people who hurt others like that,” she nodded towards him, his back with all the scars, “They don’t deserve any consideration…”

“So assholes like me,” the words were out of his mouth before he noticed, and the second he did he wanted to bite his tongue. What right did he have to be so snippy?

Luckily Velvet just pouted at him, “You’re trying to change, right?” her hand reached out to grab his, reassuring him, she hoped, that he was doing the right thing, “You _want_ to be better,” she rubbed his hand absentmindedly, “so I’m sure, one day, you’ll be forgiven.”

“Just not today,” he snorted, tugging his hand out of hers, then bending down to grab his shirt.

She pouted, “It’s a start…”

He put his arms through the sleeves and paused before putting his head in, glancing over at her, “Could…” he groaned, shaking his head not believing he was doing this, “Could you at least give me some time to think about this…”

She smiled at him somewhat cheekily, “Fine,” she almost skipped behind him, grabbing his tail as he pulled his shirt on making him start, “But if you’re going to hide this, could you _try_ to not do it in such a painful way?”

He groaned, rolling his eyes.

Seeing as he wasn’t going to listen to her, she grabbed the edge of his pants, “Would you just trust someone who has more experience being a Faunus than you,” and quickly shoved her hand down his pants, pulling at the edge of his briefs and tucking his tail in down flat against his butt, “There, that should be a bit more comfortable, though you will have to let it out some to move around and try not to slouch so much so you’re not sitting on it…”

“If you’re going to give me advice,” Cardin nearly vibrated with barely contained frustration as he yanked down his shirt, “Could you at least remove your hand from my ass!”

Opening her eyes with a start, Velvet looked down and realized yes, her hand was indeed still in his pants… in his underwear in fact. - _He really does have a nice ass…_ \- turning red at that traitorous thought she quickly yanked her hand out of his pants and let him adjust as necessary before moving to put the rest of his armor and outfit on.

Once he was finished, the large boy turned around to find the girl still staring at waist level, “What?”

“It’s such a shame,” she heard him growl as she looked back up at him, “it really is just so cute!”

“Argh!” Cardin whipped around, ready to go back, “Would you shut up about that!” then all but jumped out of his skin as he felt a hand on his posterior. Immediately a red faced glare turned on the older girl, “Would you **_stop_** touching me!”

Slyly, Velvet snickered into her hand, not removing the one from his backside, “Why does that sound so familiar…”

“Oh ha-ha,” Cardin groaned, picking up the pace and walking ahead of her, “Very funny…”

Velvet let him walk a bit ahead, removing her hand from him and putting it behind her back with her other one, and nearly skipped behind the broody boy, “I think it’s fair you get a taste of your own medicine,” she patted his backside again before skipping ahead, twirling around at his stunned form and smirking, “You might just learn something.”

For a moment the boy just growled at her then looked away, “I think I liked you better when you were scared of me…”

She skipped back up to him and looked up into his eyes with something almost sinister, “Get used to it, bunny-boy~”

Cardin’s whole body shook before he turned to her with a glare, “You had better not-!”

For whatever reason, probably to mess with him, probably because she felt sympathy for him now, Velvet Scarlatina leaned forward and kissed the angry boy on the cheek.

He completely froze.

She pulled back with a smirk on her face, “I told you it was cute!” then turned around and skipped back to school. She had a book to go find and return, not needing it anymore as she had something better to think about.

Cardin just stood there frozen for a second before his whole body shook and he shouted loud enough for probably the whole school to hear, “ ** _WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!_** ”

Velvet just snickered, wondering when the next time she could catch him with his pants down and play with that cute fluffy little bunny tail.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working on getting the rest of my RWBY shenanigans over here~
> 
> no idea where this idea came from, just... kinda funny... and can't say i've seen it anywhere else :P


	2. Abhor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cardin 'reflects' on what Velvet told him... sorta... while Velvet finally finishes that book she borrowed from Blake...

Abhor

To abhor something is to dislike and be disgusted by it with so much malice it is akin to hate. Not quite, but close.

Cardin stared in the mirror of his team’s dorm bathroom. He glared at the man in front of him. His chestnut hair, his indigo eyes narrowed with suspicion, his flat nose that had been broken more times than he could count, and his wide lips pursed in pouting frown. His square jaw was set but not clinched, his brows furrowed but not creased, his normal _human_ ears just sitting there behind his sideburns and trimmed hair.

Moving down he had a thick neck, made more so since he upped his training after sissying out and Jauney-Boy had to bail him out. Fit broad shoulders, barrel chest and thick arms. He’d packed on quite a bit of muscle since the first semester, not that he felt it did him any good.

It didn’t matter how strong he got; he was still that stupid _boy_ that nearly pissed himself at a goddamn Ursa, not even a Major one either. He was still _that_ bully who picked on anyone weaker than him, even if he hadn’t touched anyone in months… well, aside from Velvet in the forest, but that didn’t fucking count! He still glared at people, since they only glared at him, maybe snapped at a few and sent them running but he’d been trying to keep his damn focus on packing muscle not punching faces.

It didn’t matter. None of it did. It didn’t take away the scars on his body, it didn’t take away the hate burning in his veins, the fury and frustration at every look everyone gave him even when he _tried_ to change to their oh-so-high-and-mighty-standards.

It didn’t take away the fact when he looked in the mirror every day he saw a man that looked more and more like his father… but when he turned to the side…

There was that fucking tail.

Clinching his hands into tight fists he set them knuckles down on the bathroom counter, leaning them hard enough to crack and hurt. He hung his head in defeat.

There was nothing for him, there really wasn’t.

His fury and anger made everyone afraid of him, even his team. They cowed to his authority just because he scared them but since that day with the stupid Ursa… he couldn’t say he fully trusted them. His father used to beat into his head, _“Winchesters aren’t the stuff of legends, we are the foot soldiers, the legionaries, the ones that actually did the fucking job!”_ before smacking him around whenever he had delusions he’d be someone famous, and if not that than just because… Those in the Legion fought and died by the sword, in battle, lead their brothers against the enemy and weren’t there to question, they were there to kill.

What kind of Winchester was he if the only thing he could inspire in his own men was fear…

“Argh!!” he slammed his fists on the counter, not caring if it cracked or how the bones in his wrists jostled or his fists became numb.

He was a goddamn Winchester. He wasn’t supposed to question. He wasn’t supposed to back down from a fight like a frightened little boy!

… he wasn’t supposed to be a fucking mongrel either.

- _Wasn’t supposed to let anyone know…_ \- as if the shame of his deformity and impure blood wasn’t bad enough, someone had to see it! And not just _anyone_ , no, it had to be **_her!_**

His mind supplied him with images of the errant rabbit Faunus, jerking from instances where he’d pulled her ears to prove his superiority to her giggling while trying to play with his tail. The juxtaposition hurt, one second scared and crying with her eyes closed shut or flinching, next a bright smile, wide eyes, _giggling_ or the worst her brows furrowed up, a slight frown on her face and tears in her eyes.

Not tears for herself or her own pain, tears for him.

_IT MADE NO **GODDAMN** SENSE!!_

He was a jerk! He was an asshole! He was a bigoted racist fucking hypocrite! There were not enough words in the damn dictionary to describe how low and slimy he was!

So why was she crying for him?

She had no right! No right at all! Those tears should only have been for her! For the pain he caused her! For the pain others caused her! Not him! Not someone else! Not…

He set his forehead down on the cold surface, his teeth bared and eyes shut, wanting nothing more than to break this stone with his head and hopefully right all the wrongs.

Would the world make sense again…

Could he be born properly, without a disgusting tail? Could he not be looked at so foully by his father, maybe actually see his mother for once… no, he couldn’t think about her! It was her damn fault he was like this!

Lifting his head up marginally he hit his head on the counter, not enough to really hurt but enough to rattle his brain a bit.

_“Cardin… I think your tail is cute!”_

Why did he have to remember that? Why did she have to smile so care freely, clinging to his arm when he’s moments away from sending his fist through her face… _should_ have sent his fist through her face. She had no right to touch him, no right to pry, no right to _help_ him let alone spout that nonsense.

His… tail, wasn’t cute. It was an abomination. It was what separated him from his family, what tore it apart, what hurt him since he was a small child, and why he’d never truly be looked upon.

He was a Winchester in name only, but only his father knew that.

He questioned a thousand times why the old bastard didn’t just kill him, better yet why not just chop the offending appendage off and burn the area, call it an accident when he was young and stupid and couldn’t remember.

Maybe that’s why he didn’t, leave the damn thing as a reminder of what he was so he could experience firsthand how Faunus _should_ be treated, so he’d do it right. When he was younger the thoughts made him sick, and his father beat that out of him, now he was numb to it, just another order from the legate.

What was the point of all this? Dredging up memories, things he hadn’t considered in years? His only worth to the family name was to die fighting Grimm, so long as he didn’t fuck-up before then he was on the right path.

Only it seemed he wasn’t. Jaune had kicked him off the righteous path of his father, telling him not to harm any of _his_ friends or the stronger boy would probably kill him. He didn’t feel like dying yet, so he submitted himself to training, which conveniently got him away from most others so he wasn’t fucking with them or bullying them as everyone said. By the time he realized that, he wanted to punch the next person that talked to him, but remembering Jaune held it in.

He’d been trying to do this thing _their_ way, but despite all their talk and rhetoric of being what they called _‘good’_ , no one bothered to tell him how the fuck you did that.

His father barely talked to him, shouted orders and beat him into the dirt with whatever was available, that made him tough, made him fight, and siced him on anyone he felt like, and if his father didn’t approve his action he got beat again. Rinse, repeat. It got to the point he did it himself, just to keep the old man off his back… then he started to like it, then he believed it.

He could afford to be lazy and not give a fuck what his teachers said, he was a Winchester, they made it past combat school and went into Beacon. No ifs, no buts, no fucking questions.

But now he was here and _this_ …

He didn’t even know what _this_ was just that he hated it and wanted to punch something.

Lifting his head from the counter he looked up into the mirror at the man with the narrow eyes, and over his shoulder he saw his tail.

He’d been using extra time in the bathroom to let the stupid thing free and move around, like Velvet said. He wasn’t actually giving a damn to what the stupid rabbit said, just he didn’t want to deal with the fucking thing hurting like it was. His stupid teammates thought he was in there jerking off and if he weren’t so fucking pissed at his own actions he just might have, just to relieve the damn tension.

But he couldn’t, not with his damn tail out and what the fuck would be the point. All the hot girls in this fucking school hated him and it wasn’t like his old man would ever let him actually have a fucking kid, let alone be with a woman. He was tainted, but he was all the old bastard had.

It all just pissed him off more; his tail, the situation, the past, that bitch’s fucking **_GIGGLING!_** That kept popping up in his head every time his damn tail twitched! Or the feel of her hand down his pants every time he set it down now…

So. Fucking. Frustrating.

“ARGH!” with a powerful fist he sent it into the mirror, breaking the silver glass and causing enough of a wave to have it bust out from the wall.

He didn’t care that his hand was bleeding, or that he had a few other cuts. He needed to go hit something and there were only a few places he wouldn’t get fucked with right now.

Tucking his tail into his underwear and putting on his shirt, he walked out, ignoring his teammates and slipping into some loose shorts and headed out.

The other members of CRDL shared worried looks, Cardin looked like he was going to murder someone and they didn’t want to be anywhere _near_ that. They took a glance into the bathroom and noticed the mirror shattered and the counter cracked.

“Maaaan,” Sky rubbed his eyes, “The hell’s gotten into him, thought he’d chilled out, now that?”

“Maybe he’s on drugs?” the other two gave Dove a look, “What?! I’m serious, dudes probably juicing or something!”

Russel just groaned, pulling out his scroll, “Whatever, I’ll call up Goodwitch, say we were dicking around and accidently threw something that broke it,” they all sighed, that excuse was getting worn out but it was better than having glass everywhere, “She’s gonna be pissed… again.”

Sky rubbed his chin, looking over his teammates, “Think we should tell her the truth?” they all shared worried looks but didn’t seem to know how to respond.

\------

 Velvet was having a fairly good day.

She’d managed to finish reading that book Blake lent her over the last few days, despite certain odd thoughts popping up now and then, and when she went to go return it the cat Faunus had offered to workout together. Velvet had simply smiled cheerily and ran off to get changed before returning, finding that Blake’s teammate Weiss had decided to join and the heiress seemed especially frustrated over _something_ which Blake seemed ignorant of.

“How you doing?” Velvet smiled at the two, catching a smirk from Blake and a glare from Weiss, but assumed it had nothing to do with her. The Schnee heiress used to glare at her a lot, and pretty much any other Faunus, but since seemed to learn to _chill out_ , pun intended, and get along with her fellow students, sort of. While belligerent in her gaze, she’d never been a real _problem._ - _like_ some _people!_ \- Now Weiss was _fairly_ friendly with most people, Faunus or not, but remained mostly closed and only really opening up to those in her team. So Velvet was obviously surprised she’d decided to join them.

“We’re ready,” Blake said calmly, nodding to her teammate, “Weiss decided to join us, if you don’t mind?”

“Not at all!” the rabbit Faunus gave her brightest grin.

“Shall we then,” it wasn’t a question, Weiss just grabbed her stuff and headed down the hall. At least she acknowledged she existed Velvet supposed.

Her and Blake shared a glance, the black haired girl shrugging and moving to follow, “I think she’s upset Ruby passed out because of a cookie eating contest with her sister…”

“Oh?” bunny ears bobbed amused, “What happened to Yang?”

That sly catlike smirk Blake had grew, “Passed out as well…”

Velvet raised a hand and giggled lightly behind it, following as the W and B of RWBY lead the way to the school gyms.

Beacon, like any Hunter school, had a large gymnasium suited for practice combat and physical training. There was a large public weight room, beside a few sparring circles, and aside from that a few smaller workout rooms for more private endeavors.

Velvet assumed they’d be heading to the private rooms, few people liked the big room as it was more for showing off or hitting on someone, and from prior times working out with Blake she knew if the cat Faunus could get away with it she’d take her bow off and let her ears free for a bit.

Thinking about that reminded Velvet of a certain _someone_ who also hid his Faunus features, though apparently better than anyone else. Her cheeks pinked slightly remembering his fluffy little bunny tail, it was such a shame something so adorable was attached to such a jerk.

Amidst her thoughts her feet took her following the two until she nearly bumped into Blake and squeaked.

“Ugh!” Weiss’ cry of disgust at one of the open private rooms piqued her curiosity as the white clad girl simply turned up her nose and moved on to another one.

Blake’s amber eyes narrowed as she glared into the room but kept her comments to herself.

Velvet leaned over, curious what had them so riled up and nearly squeaked again. - _Speak of the devil he shall come!_ \- her mind yelled at her, as if her earlier traitorous thoughts were the reason Cardin Winchester was sitting in a weight room, by himself and pumping iron with both hands.

Her ears lowered and she trembled slightly as she latched onto the edge of the door, hiding her face.

Noticing this behavior, Blake turned to the older girl, tugging her by the shoulder and taking her back the other way, waving at Weiss to continue on before addressing her fellow Faunus, “Hey, it’s alright, we can leave if you want?” her tone was low and soft, obviously trying to sooth the troubled girl.

Only Velvet knew what Blake _thought_ was the problem, wasn’t it. - _Omigawd I didn’t think I’d see him!_ \- the second she’d caught sight of his back towards them her eyes had traveled straight to his butt, right where his tail was hidden and the traitorous thoughts of earlier came back. Her hands came up, hiding her blush, but also conveniently made it look like she was more _distressed_ than she really was. - _I need to figure out a way to get away so I can talk to him…_ \- She’d noticed he was still hiding his tail, and that annoyed her to no end! Also the thought that he probably hadn’t taken her advice which likely meant the poor fluffy appendage was at the mercy of that elastic band and **_needed_** to be freed!

Keeping her hands over her face, because there was no way she _was **not**_ blushing now, she looked at Blake as if distressed and trying to hide it, which she sort of was, “I-I’ll b-be fine,” she turned away, loosing one hand to wave back, “Y-you go workout with Weiss! I’ll just go b-back!”

Amber eyes narrowed, her bow lowering and the black haired girl looked about to start hissing, “There’s no reason you should be scared of that jerk…”

Velvet absently nodded. - _Believe me, there is at least one…_ \- he had this thing called an absolutely adorable tail and it did stupid things to her brain. Bad, horrible, stupid things.

She quickly shook her head, trying to get rid of the damn thoughts.

Blake just frowned more, looking back, glaring at the open door but then noticing Weiss standing outside one further down with a concerned look. She shook her head before turning back to Velvet, “Are you sure about this?”

Velvet felt she nodded entirely too fast, “Y-yes! Don’t mind me! I’m sure Weiss would prefer your company right now!” Blake gave her another look, to which Velvet finally lowered her hands waving them in front of her and trying to give as best a grin as possible, “I-I’m sure I have some work to catch up on!” and before she gave the cat Faunus the chance to try and coerce her again, she quickly hopped back down the hall, “Have fun!”

Blake just stood there for a long moment, her bow twitching in her agitation as she crossed her arms and glared the way Velvet went. With a defeated sigh, the B of RWBY turned heel and moved towards her teammate, glaring at the open door where Cardin was working out. He didn’t seem to notice and that annoyed her even more, but she pressed on.

“She not coming?” Weiss asked with a raised brow, to anyone that wasn’t accustomed to her she would sound cynical but Blake had gotten to know the stuffy heiress well enough to detect the concern laden in her voice.

With a frustrated sigh, Blake shrugged, “Apparently school work suddenly called her away…”

A distinct frown passed over the Schnee heiress’ face, it was a look Blake had come to associate with Weiss sensing bullshit, “Jeez, they really should put a sign out when that jerk shows up,” she waved her hand dramatically while turning around, likely something she picked up from her partner Ruby, “Cardin Winchester is in, everyone else get out!” she ended by rolling her eyes and stepping into their own room to work out.

Blake rolled her own eyes following her, “For some reason I think it’d be much cruder than that…” before grabbing the door and closing it.

The second she heard that door closing, Velvet stuck her head out from around the corner. Glancing around to make sure no one else was around that would potentially notice her slight _lapse_ _in sanity_ , she snuck her way over to Cardin’s room and quickly shuffled in, throwing her bag against the wall and pulling some stuff out.

“Tch,” this was the fifth person Cardin heard passing by, now what? Were they just going to gawk? He forced his muscles tighter, angry at how stupid everyone was acting. He comes in just to blow off some steam in a good, _productive_ , way and everyone treats him like a goddamn pariah! If he weren’t trying to be _nice_ to them he’d have broken the dudes’ faces that made a buncha comments behind his back before leaving. - _Pricks, too good to be in the same room as me huh…_ \- he’d left the door open because closing it required he get up and face whoever else was in there and slowly it just dwindled down to him anyway…

“Hmhmhmm,” there was suddenly a strangely familiar humming behind him, but Cardin tried to ignore it. There was a bit of a scraping sound then something that sounded like tape and at this point he couldn’t help but turn around.

Behind him appeared to be Velvet Scarlatina, taping up a sign that literally said ‘Cardin Winchester in Here, FUCK OFF!!’ to the door, giggle to herself then close the door and turned towards him.

Apparently she hadn’t realized he’d stopped lifting and turned towards her, as the second their eyes met she squeaked and jumped nearly a foot in the air.

He stared at her, mouth falling open as a million things buzzed into white noise at what was going on in front of him.

Velvet had her hands up, covering her mouth and seemed to look around a bit, her ears bobbing before she finally looked at him again and lowered her hands enough to wave with one and show an odd smile, “Uh-hi!”

Cardin just stared at her with a twitching eye and loudly dropped the dumbbell in his hand.

For the longest second the two just stared at each other.

Then they heard some loud rabble outside before whoever was on the other side of the door quickly left.

Turning back to one another Velvet had a wide grin and Cardin was raising a brow, “Why did you do that?”

The rabbit Faunus finally lowered her hands, holding them behind her and started walking around, “I figured it’d be a good way to keep others out…”

Keeping his brow raised the Winchester boy kept his narrow eyes on the rabbit-girl as she moved about the weights seeming to idly look around, “Why did you even have the stuff to do that?”

She just shrugged, leaning over a rack of hand weights, poking one, “I usually come here with others, but get bored after a while,” momentarily she looked at him over her shoulder with a smirk, “Faunus tend to have more resilient muscles than humans,” her eyes stayed on him till his own widened and she knew he got the hidden point, before turning back to the weights, “So I get bored and if I don’t have my camera I start drawing what I see…”

“Tch,” indigo eyes rolled as he looked away, reaching down to pick up his dumbbell and continue, “That’s stupid…” it really wasn’t, frankly he didn’t really care, he just wanted her to go away.

Which she didn’t, now wondering closer to him, watching herself in the mirror along the wall, “How come you’re not facing the mirror?” she turned to him with a raised brow and curious face. He was wearing a generic black tee-shirt and shorts, and the second her eyes landed on his posterior she couldn’t help but glower.

“Would you stop looking at my ass,” Cardin growled, just sensing where her eyes were headed… or maybe he was just being paranoid. Either way she pissed him off and this pumping iron wasn’t helping like before. So he started flexing his arm faster, adamantly not facing her or the mirror.

There was some huff behind him, and that was all the warning he got before Velvet reached down, pulling up the back of his shirt and tugging his shorts down enough to grab his tail and pull it out to wiggle free in the air. This was accented by her squealing.

“Argh!!” Cardin growled, jumping up swiftly and dropping the weight… sadly on his own foot, “SON OF A-ARRRGGGH!!” now he was hopping around on one foot, trying to grab the other, before falling over unceremoniously into a pile of other weights and stuff. It hurt, it hurt a lot.

There was a sharp gasp, “CARDIN!” before Velvet was hopping over the bench and leaning over him, grabbing his hand and trying to help pull him up, “I’m so sorry, that was NOT what I was-” her words were cut off as the big guy growled, swatting her hands away.

“GET AWAY FROM ME!!” he shouted, anger overcoming his whole visage as he grit his teeth and snarled at the bunny girl.

With a squeak Velvet jumped a good foot away, giving him space but still looking on with entirely too much concern for Cardin’s liking.

He growled, turning away from her wide brown eyes, as he moved to push himself up. He nearly crumpled twice, his arms already being worn from his work out and his frustration not making it any easier.

“Here,” a soft voice spoke near him, Velvet apparently crouching down by his shoulder as he just kept his chest up supported on his shaky arms.

She tried to grab him around the shoulder and pull him up but he pushed her away again, “Leave me alone!”

Now she was glaring at him, and if he bothered to look up he would have noticed her ears hanging lower, “Must you be so difficult…”

With a snort he finally pushed himself up to his feet, “You’re the one that pushed me…” he purposely looked away from her crouched on the ground by him. Which meant he was now looking at the mirror, where he could clearly see his tail sticking out between his shirt and shorts wiggling free. His eyes narrowed and he growled heading back to the bench to grab his stuff. This was stupid, he should have just gone and hit trees or something!

“It’s not like I meant to!” she jumped to her feet with an agitated pout. Really! She was just trying to help the guy out! Or at least his tail! That poor adorable thing needed to be set free!

Then she noticed he was grabbing his stuff and zipping up his bag.

She blinked, “H-hey!” she bounded over to him, leaning closer but for once not touching him, angry pout still obvious, “What are you doing?!”

“Feh, what’s it look like,” he made like he’d shove her but just growled and lowered his head, grabbing his bag and throwing it over his shoulder, “I’m leaving, work out by yourself, and leave me alone…”

She could feel her hands clinched, her shoulders come up as this stupid boy was really getting on her nerves, “You haven’t been here _that_ long!”

“Tch,” he growled over his shoulder while heading to the door.

The annoyance quickly left Velvet’s shoulders as she looked down and saw his little tail. She sighed heavily walking over to him, “You should really let it out more,” her voice was low as she grabbed the back of his elastic shorts, making him squeak, and tucked his tail back in gently. With a sigh she glanced up at the now stock still boy, “And pay attention, you almost walked out of here with it out…”

Getting over the feeling of her hand on his tail and grabbing his pants, Cardin glared at the rabbit-girl over his shoulder. Well, he tried too, he was more staring at her as everything she did just kept confusing the fuck out of him. His mind was running a mile a minute, from her insistent need to touch him, namely his tail, and her weird actions towards him. - _The hell?!_ \- with a growl he managed one step forward towards the door…

… before dropping his bag and whirling around on the girl, “Alright what the hell?!”

“Uh,” Velvet seemed to bounce, snapping out of her sad staring at his departing behind once again, only to now be facing his rather intimidating and angry face, “Pardon?”

Clinching his jaw, Cardin snarled, rolling his neck and looking off to the side, unable to take in that look on her face, “This,” he waved his hand, still not looking at her, “Though you wanted me to walk around showing off this… that…” one of his hands formed a tight fist at his side as he snarled at the floor, “ _That_ fucking _thing_ I have!” when his indigo eyes opened he lifted them enough to glare hard at the bunny-girl, “So what’s your deal! H-helping me… hide… it?” his voice trailed at the end, unable to look at her again.

Narrowly Velvet just stared at the boy, crossing her arms and taking a good long look at him. This was just like in the forest, only there she’d still been too surprised to truly take him in. well, maybe not completely, she certainly _noticed_ things about him then… but this was… not as volatile a situation. Sure, they were in the same room together with him standing between her and the door, but she wasn’t the one trying to leave as quickly as possible, as strange as **_that_** was.

No, Cardin was the one running here. - _He’s obviously **thought** about what I said… but…_ \- warm brown eyes looked the boy in the face, trying to catch his eyes but he was adamant about not looking at her directly. He was ashamed, that was obvious, but why did it matter? - _I already know… heck I helped him… so why…_ \- her eyes looked him over, noticing his tightly clinched fists and stiff shoulders. - _Right, this is Cardin Winchester… what was I thinking?_ -

With a light sigh, Velvet finally gave him the only answer she felt she could, “You’re not ready.”

“What?” Cardin’s voice growled at the rabbit.

Velvet crossed her arms, taking a deep breath and sparing him by closing her eyes, “You’re not ready to walk out of here with your tail out,” when her eyes opened she found the boy looking right at her. She couldn’t help but give him a cute smile and wink, “I sure will be one day,” moving her hands behind her back the rabbit Faunus just smiled at the angry boy, “But for now, we’ll just keep that cute little appendage between us, kay?”

Cardin refused to admit he was blushing. He was not blushing! He **_would NOT_** blush because of anything this damn bunny-girl said!

Then his mind absolutely betrayed him, reminding him of her final taunt that day in the forest. That stupid kiss on the cheek!

With a frustrated growl the boy quickly turned heel, grabbing his bag and scowling, “Tch!”

The last thing he heard exiting the room was the damn girl gigging. With a fierce growl he ripping the sign off the door as he exited, wanting _so badly_ to turn around and yell at her but knowing that’d only screw him over somehow.

He settled for snarling at the next guy to cross his path, “WHAT’RE YOU LOOKING AT, HUH?!”

Back inside the weight room, Velvet sat on the bench by the door. Even with it closed again she could still hear Cardin’s voice as he cussed out someone walking by. She sighed, pulling out her drawing book, “One step forward, two steps back…”

She completely ignored the small smile forming on her face as she started drawing a certain fluffy appendage attached to a certain angry boy’s behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote half of this before writing 'Queen of her Court' over in Conflagration, so there are a few references that bled over into that... like Blake and her damn books, or cookie eating contests XD


	3. Rancor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velvet has lunch and may or may not be spying on a certain hidden fluffy appendage... Also Coco has an interesting idea for settling what she 'thinks' is going on...

Rancor

Rancor was a long standing bitterness that never quite went away. Once it took root it stuck around, festering to the point the person would eventually explode in a violent rage. At the very least, it was an automatic reason for distrust among people.

Velvet watched during lunch how people treated Cardin. They gave him a wide berth, looked at him with unbidden disgust, spoke about him behind his back and now that she knew what she did about him, she actually wondered if his hearing was better than the average human and he actually knew what they were saying.

Even across the cafeteria, Velvet could hear their words loud and clear. If she could from this distance, even an earless faunus could five feet away from themselves.

That’s probably why he tensed and snarled at his tray as he passed. Eventually finding a seat in the corner off by himself, ironically sitting with his back to her.

Her bunny ears bobbed and she wonder if he knew where she was sitting and doing it on purpose.

- _At least he’s not sitting **on** his tail…_ \- she’d noticed a few days ago him awkwardly trying to sit but eventually just growling, standing up and leaving, as if not knowing how to sit down with his tail properly stowed was reason enough to not eat. Though when his diet consisted mainly of meat, meat and more meat she wondered if that wasn’t a good thing.

Sure, she could eat meat, Faunus were omnivores like humans… they just tended more towards the diets of their animal counterparts. Sun liked fruits and sweet things like monkeys, Blake almost always had some kind of fish, there was a wolf faunus skulking about that usually ate raw meat (though from what she’d heard she’d originally tried hunting squirrels and her team had to convince her that was ‘bad’ and cafeteria food was ‘good’) and there was a cow faunus that ate mostly bread. Grass was a grain, get it. She herself had a penchant for more leafy vegetables, and if she strayed too far from that she knew she’d feel sick to her stomach and miserable. Unless it was winter, then it was potatoes, all day, every day if she could get away with it… and yes, then she could deal with carrots.

But that was getting too far off topic, Cardin was a mess and everyone treated him like garbage.

Part of her knew she should appreciate the irony, but it just made her feel more depressed. - _He bullies and threatens people, they leave him alone… he leaves people alone and they treat him worse…_ \- she gave a sigh, no wonder he was angry and frustrated all the time. Poor diet, poor treatment, not enough exercise probably if their last meeting was any indication, and a complete lack of proper socialization.

Bunnies were social creatures, they lived best in warrens, large groups of extended families in underground tunnels. She knew her family was like that, lots of cousins, second cousins, step-cousins, siblings, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grand-everything… they all lived close together and honestly being at Beacon was probably the quietest her life had ever been. Yea, even with the noisy first year teams of RWBY, JNPR and the rest, it was _still_ fairly tame compared to back home.

She couldn’t imagine what Cardin’s life growing up was like. Well, no, she’d seen his back, and his general attitude towards everything, she **_could_** imagine it, she just didn’t want to. Even thinking about those scars and who put them there… it was far too cold and cruel to linger on.

Her eyes fell back to the boy, or really his poor hidden tail. - _Something that cute needs to be shown to the world!_ \- she was still on the fence about the guy, he was a jerk, and the more she figured out about him made him a _slightly_ more understandable jerk, but still a jerk nonetheless. That tail of his though was beyond adorable and her mind kept taunting her with thoughts of how fluffy it was and how it was wiggling up and down. For all she knew it was sending primitive bunny-code that her baser instincts were interpreting some way her logical, _sane_ , part couldn’t understand. It probably explained her rising fixation on the boy.

Jerk he was, but damn was that tail cute!

“Velvet?” a crisp voice called from next to her, making the rabbit faunus jump in her seat. She recognized it of course, how could she _not_! Perking up the second year student turned a cheery smile on her team leader, Coco Adel.

“Coco! What are you doing here?” it was a valid question. Due to differences in their schedules, Velvet often had lunch with the majority of first years, the rest of her team did not. It was one of the reasons she had been vulnerable enough to be picked on earlier in the year, and while her team had given her _plenty_ of suggestions on how to deal with the subject, she had refused them. It wasn’t intentionally this way, she was sure, they all just had different specialty classes that made their schedules a bit wonky. As far as she knew, Coco was supposed to be in an artillery class right now.

“Things got moved around,” the Gucci-punk said calmly, taking a seat next to her teammate. It was hard to tell with the woman’s sunglasses where _exactly_ her focus was, but Velvet figured if she was facing her, she was it, “Figured I’d join you for lunch.”

“Eh-heh,” the rabbit faunus nervously scratched her cheek. Generally, if Coco had free time that meant some mischief was about to take place. Don’t get her wrong, she knew her team leader was serious about her job as a Huntress-in-training and her studies… but she also knew that the beret wearing mini-gunner had a flare for rebellious behavior, when it suited her at least. - _She’s not shopping or causing mayhem on her time off… that must mean it’s about to start!_ \- okay, part of her _may_ have found some amusement in the unique brand of chaos her team leader liked to enact. Maybe.

Coco was rubbing her chin; a sign she was scoping out the cafeteria as she set her deceptively heavy purse on the ground next to her. Velvet couldn’t help but raise a brow, it wasn’t required of students to walk around with their weapons, and generally frowned upon, but Coco’s mini-gun-purse did second as an actual handbag she supposed, not that she had any idea how the thing even marginally functioned.

Even with the sunglasses obfuscating where Coco was looking, Velvet just knew she was looking for a target for some manner of mischief. If the Gucci-punk could get away with it, there were a number of things she could do to entertain herself for the time being.

“So,” the beret wearing huntress leaned over to her bunny companion, “Where’s this guy that was giving you a hard time?”

Immediately there was a squeak as Velvet tensed, “Wha-what?!”

With a simple flick, Coco lowered her shades and looked right at her comrade with a perceptive look, “I happen to have my stilettos on today,” another flick and those stylish shades were back in place and there was a wicked little smirk on her lips, “I’m sure it’s about time I introduced this jerk to them…”

“Ehehehe…” Velvet nervously laughed. It wouldn’t do well to point out Cardin here, that would just be asking for trouble. As amusing as it would be to watch Coco, who was a good foot or two shorter than the large boy, grind him into the dirt with her exquisite stilettos, that was just… too mean? - _If anyone is going to kick him into the dirt it should be me!_ \- in her mind’s eye Velvet was pumping a fist, but the second she realized the wicked thought shook her head. - _What am I saying! I can’t do that! That’d be too…_ \- opening her eyes she found them wondering straight to a certain someone’s backside. - _Evil appendage, warping my brain…_ -

Coco happened to lean over and assumedly stare at what Velvet was staring at, “Vel, why are you staring at that guy’s ass?”

Another squeak from the rabbit faunus, “I-I AM NOT!!” she may have shouted that a bit too loud, holding up her fists and looking around flustered. When she noticed others looking at her, Velvet’s face turned red and she quickly ducked under hands, putting her forehead flat on the table.

A hand patted her shoulder and she knew it was Coco’s, “There, there… nothing wrong with looking…”

- _Easier for you to say_ \- Velvet promptly hit her head on the tabletop lightly, “It’s not what you think…” she groaned, wondering how to get out of this situation.

“And what am I thinking?” Coco’s voice was smooth but Velvet knew there was a different tone there. Obviously her leader was thinking of _something_ but the bunny girl had no way to tell what.

Chocolate colored eyes glanced up at the Gucci-punk from the table, “What are you planning, Coco?”

With her free hand, Coco Adel was rubbing her chin again, looking in the direction of Cardin Winchester, “I think there are two reasons you’d be staring at that guy. One, you think he’s got a nice ass.”

Velvet may or may not have squeaked at that response, hoping her leader didn’t notice. This was proven a futile thought when Coco just kept patting her shoulder and Velvet hoped the earth would split open and swallow her up.

“Two,” Coco held up two fingers on her free hand as a wicked smirk played across her lips, “That’s the guy I need to introduce to my stilettoes…”

This time Velvet definitely whined, “Coco~ I told you guys I wanted to handle it my way…”

There was a very un-couture snort from the Gucci-punk.

Velvet propped her head up, pouting, pleading and using every ounce of cute she could muster to work on her leader, “I mean it! I appreciate what you guys want to do, but I need to fight my own battles!” she looked at her friend sternly, “My way.”

Coco stared at her comrade for a long time sternly, then smirked, lowering her shades and giving her bunny friend a wink, “Fine, you can fight your own battles, _your_ way,” she flicked back up her shades, that funny little mischievous smirk returning, “Though I think it’s better you settle this sooner rather than later.”

Velvet just grumbled to herself, leaning her head in her hand and trying to keep her attention on her food. Even if her gaze kept wandering. To a certain part of a certain boy. It wasn’t like she was doing it on purpose! She was flustered! That’s all!

Maybe if she weren’t so flustered and staring at a certain hidden tail, she may have noticed the plotting look on her team leader’s face. Maybe then she would have been better prepared for what came next.

\-----

“Class, we will be having a special event today,” Professor Goodwitch’s voice rang out over the crowd of first year students. It had been scheduled to be an average combat class, everyone taking turns fighting whoever and they’d all just watch and take ‘notes’ on how bad they screwed up.

Cardin sat back, leaning against the wall with his arms behind his head with his team near the top. His narrow eyes were scanning the arena below, most of it shadowed with a spotlight overhead on Goodwitch, who looked as proper and intimidating as usual. Whatever this new thing was she wasn’t showing at all. Which was weird since they usually knew a week in advanced if something weird popped up.

“As you all know, combat skills are best honed in the field,” Professor Goodwitch’s riding-crop went out and the lights around the arena came on brighter, “While combating Grimm and your fellow classmates is one way to learn, it does not adequately prepare you for more advanced Hunter-Vs-Hunter combat, such as you may face in the upcoming Vytal Festival.” Out of the shadows a team was revealed, consisting of a short stylish girl with shades and a beret holding a purse, a dark skinned and scarred guy with white eyes and arm blades, a large tan guy with some armor and a massive sword… and Velvet.

All the students perked up a bit, and Cardin would admit he got a little interested too. He’d never seen Velvet in this combat gear of hers, usually her school uniform and her gym gear that one time. It was a tight black and brown body suit outfit with gold armor on her shoulders and around her waist, showing her figure easily and a funny symbol with a brown stitched heart. Weirdest of all was this box she had strapped to her waist. - _It that her weapon?_ \- what the hell kind of weapon was that?

Professor Goodwitch turned to the four, “This is Team CFVY, second year Hunters,” the blonde woman’s sharp eyes turned back to the class, “I have asked them to join us today to help teach you all a thing or two about advanced combat…”

“Hey! Professor! Does this mean we get to fight them?!” The busty blonde from RWBY, Yang Xiao Long, was bouncing in her seat, waving her hands and obviously trying to get the teacher’s attention. Her partner, Blake Belladonna, was trying to keep her in her seat.

Professor Goodwitch’s eyes narrowed on the feisty brawler, “Indeed,” she pushed up her glasses, “I take it you are volunteering, Ms. Xiao Long?”

Yang was up in an instant, fists pumped and a stupid grin on her face, “Hell yeah!” Blake was facepalming next to her, while her sister was staring at her and whitey just rolled her eyes.

“Very well,” Professor Goodwitch pressed a few buttons on her scroll, the large screen on the back wall lighting up as the data was input, “Mr. Daichi,” the big guy with the sword perked up, “Would you be so kind as to indulge Ms. Xiao Long?”

Yatsuhashi gave a curt nod, reaching a hand to his sword and stepping quietly to the center of the arena.

“ALRIGHT!!” Yang was nowhere near as dignified, jumping down to the arena quickly, despite her team’s protests, groans and cheers. The busty blonde held her hands up, cocking her weapons into place and smirked right up to the giant, “Bring it big guy! Let’s see how hard you fall!”

Yatsuhashi quirked a brow at the rowdy blonde, sending a look to his teammates. Velvet looked embarrassed, Fox had his arms crossed, and Coco just waved her hand as if bored. The swordsman simply looked back at his opponent, shrugged lightly and resigned to the fight.

“First match,” Professor Goodwitch’s voice called from the side of the arena, “Yatsuhashi Daichi vs. Yang Xiao Long,” there was the swish of her switch, “Begin!”

The fight started out intense. From the second Goodwitch said ‘begin’, Yang flew at the big guy only for him to block her with the flat of his blade, then swinging it trying to push her only for the blonde to jump off it like a springboard and started firing those shotgun-cuffs of hers. It’s weird to say, but from where Cardin was sitting, the guy moved his blade to block most of the shells, then seemed to flex, sending out a shockwave that deflected the rest.

“The hell kind of move was that?” Now he was interested. Lowering his hands, Cardin sat straighter, wanting to catch more of this fight. Next to him Russel was on the edge of his seat, fists clinched tight, biting his lip and had the stupidest grin on his face. The little Mohawk wearing guy got excited by most fights, so this wasn’t really that weird.

By now Yang realized her shotguns weren’t doing nearly enough, so she hit the ground running, aiming to get into the guy’s guard and take advantage of her shorter range for close combat.

Only thing she didn’t take into account was the big guy from CFVY was wielding his sword one-handed. She dodged the first swing, jumping over the blade, cocking her hand back to hit him square in the jaw, only to get his massive hand and better reach grabbing her by the face and slamming her into the ground.

There was another shockwave and the ground cracked, only instead of getting knocked out Yang started to flare up, grabbing the guy’s arm.

Without warning Yatsuhashi dragged her through the ground before spinning and tossing her into the nearest wall. Yang stayed stuck for a moment, her aura flaring and she looked almost on fire. And Cardin had no idea how it worked but the moment her eyes opened, he swore they looked red and the grin she was sending was deadly.

In a flash she was burning up the arena going in for another strike on the guy. He swung, her fist hit with enough force to shake the whole room. Only Yatsuhashi’s blade did the same, there was another one of those pulses and in an instant he followed through with the swing and sent Yang flying, literally, through the roof.

The monitor on the back wall beeped, Yang’s Aura going into the red a moment before it disappeared as she was out of range.

“That concludes the match,” Professor Goodwitch made herself known again, “By both ring out and aura level, Mr. Daichi is the winner.” The blonde teacher glanced out across the students seated, finding Yang’s team, “Ms. Rose, would you kindly go fetch your sister.”

There wasn’t even a response as the red clad girl disappeared in a swirl of petals.

Professor Goodwitch looked back at her assembled students, “I hope you all were paying attention, taking advantage of something as simple as reach can have tremendous effects on the outcome of a match.” She turned back to her scroll and Yatsuhashi went back to his spot with his team, “Now then who will be next?”

The next handful of battles weren’t nearly as interesting, at least to Cardin. They all involved someone from Team CFVY, except Velvet, fighting one of his classmates and getting their asses handed to them. Nora challenged Yatsuhashi, who again sent the girl flying through a wall. Jaune-y boy got treated to the guy with the red hair and weird eyes, named Fox apparently. Little Ms. Better-than-everyone-Pyrrha Nikos didn’t bother challenging, joining the last member of their team dealing with the losers. Ruby brought Yang back in time to watch Blake go up against Fox, which was a weird fight as the guy just ignored her shadows and always seemed to find her. When Coco got into the ring she had two members of one team, two Faunus, a cow and a wolf, go at her, and it was funny watching them run around for a bit but she just smacked them around with her handbag then took on another half-team never losing her cocky attitude.

It got to the point the only team that hadn’t challenged them was his own, and the only one they hadn’t seen up yet was Velvet, which was weird. Cardin hated to admit it, but after watching her team, he wanted to know why she hadn’t brought them out to kick his ass when he was being a jerk. Hell, he deserved it, and these guys woulda wiped the floor with him for good measure. - _And looking at that Coco’s heels, she’d probably gut me with them_ \- Also why were they having her hang back here? Wasn’t the point of this thing to show off how much better her team was than a buncha first years?

- _I honestly didn’t even realize she **was** a second year?_ \- that was the first time he ever really considered it. They had history and lunch together, why the hell was a second year dealing with them? It couldn’t be that she’d fallen back a year or something, she was still with her team, did missions with them for all he knew. Plus, it wasn’t like he knew the rest of her schedule. - _What the hell?!_ \- It was starting to frustrate him, thinking this whole time she’d just been dicking around with him. - _All that bullshit about me hiding who I am?! And what’s she do? Hiding all the damn time!_ \- now he was frustrated. What the hell was she hiding now? Why wasn’t she fighting? Why did she _NEVER_ fight back?!

“ _Hatred is easy… Love is hard…”_

That’s what she’d said, along with him not needing to hide who… _what_ he was. Like all the rest of her ‘kindness’ bullshit, it was just too… _different_ from what he understood to grasp. Someone hits you, you hit them back harder. And if it’s the Legate, you shut up and take it like a man. This girl and her stupid philosophy… he was gonna show her.

“We have time for one last match,” Professor Goodwitch’s voice called out as the combatants from the last fight left the arena. Her green eyes scanned the crowd, landing on Team CRDL for a moment, “We’ve not seen anyone from Team CRDL compete yet.” There was no question in her voice, they were being called out.

Russel, Sky and Dove all sweat-dropped and sunk further in their seats. They knew better than to challenge those second year guys, not only were they better but they’d likely be murdered as there was _no way_ they didn’t know about their earlier bullying of their last member. Those three members of CRDL swore then and there to never bother Velvet again, and stay as far from Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi as humanly possible. They wanted to stay alive long enough to graduate.

So they, and the rest of the class, were rather surprised when Cardin stood up, glaring down at the second years, “I’ll do it.”

A thin brow rose above Professor Goodwitch’s glasses, “Very well, Mr. Winchester come down here.” She turned towards Team CFVY while the boy with the mace made his way down, “And which of you would like to challenge him?”

The boys were quiet but there was a momentary bit of an argument between the girls. Coco, as always, looked smug while Velvet looked exceptionally nervous. It wasn’t until the shades wearing Gucci-punk elbowed the rabbit Faunus that the taller girl squeaked and stepped forward.

“I-I’ll f-fight him!” it was probably the least convincing challenge Glynda had ever heard.

The older woman glanced from the faunus girl to the boy now standing in the center of the arena. If he was surprised, he hid it well. In fact, he didn’t show any form of emotion except for an intense stare.

Now _that_ did make Glynda curious. Cardin was typically one to boast and belittle his opponents, even if he hadn’t really challenged anyone since Pyrrha Nikos defeated his entire team without trying. The rest of the students seemed tense, the faunus in particular, all of them seeming to wait for something to happen so they could jump in and likely get at the boy that previously showed reprehensible behavior towards them.

Perhaps there was something different here. Glynda looked between the two fighters, neither acting like they normally did, and while every teaching instinct in her said to cancel this fight, as it wouldn’t do to hand a bully his preferred victim, something had the headmaster’s assistant pause. Perhaps it was that Cardin was taking this seriously for once, or perhaps it had to do with the fact Velvet was already in a fighting stance and despite how nervous her face looked the rest of her was prepped and ready for this fight.

Professor Goodwitch simply moved back to her position by the wall, “Final match, Velvet Scarlatina vs. Cardin Winchester, Begin!”

The match started with a stare down. Cardin held his mace in both hands glaring at the bunny girl who simply stood in something like a boxing stance.

Cardin’s brows furrowed, “Tch, why don’t you bring out your weapon!”

Her ears bobbed as she blinked at him, “Several reasons actually,” she started bouncing, bringing her fists up under her chin, “But for now, I only need my hands and feet to beat you.” The way her eyes seemed to smirk at him was just so wrong.

The big mace-wielder wouldn’t admit how that look made his face flush, because he was pissed! That was all! “Argh! Fine!” he threw his mace into the ground, the bladed flanges cutting into the ground and getting stuck as he took a heavy stance, “You wanna go that way, fine with me!”

“Uh…?” was about as far as Velvet got in her response before the large boy came barreling after her. She’d have found the gesture almost chivalrous in its stupidity if not for the fact he was _charging_ right **_at her!_** “Eep!” he tried for a big bear-hug grapple, or something, from overhead, which she just ducked and slid under, uppercutting him into his unarmored gut before she slipped away.

“Ugh,” the boy growled, grabbing his side and stopping himself from throwing up. He turned back to the rabbit girl snarling, “Try that again and I’ll grab your ears…” it was petty but that hurt!

Velvet just flatly glared at the boy, bobbing her ears, “Touch my ears and I’ll pull down your pants!”

That comment got more than one snicker, a smirk from Coco and a boisterous laugh from several, such as Yang and Nora.

Cardin just growled, eyes swiftly glancing from Velvet to the class and back. Bringing his arms in front, he cracked his knuckles in front of his chest, “Fine, have it that way…” again he charged at her.

And again she slipped away, out of his reach and got another hit where he wasn’t armored. This time it didn’t seem to do anything as Cardin just whirled with the blow, missing her head by an inch with a backward swing from his elbow. Velvet just ducked behind him again, actually giggling this time as she poked him in the middle of his spine.

That was entirely too close to his tail! With a roar he charged backwards, just aiming for a body-slam but again she slipped out of the way allowing for him to fall back. There was a bit of a loud ‘oof!’ and the sound of metal slamming into the ground as he landed.

“Oh, Cardin!” immediately she jumped to see if he was okay like she had at the gym, forgetting they were in a fight for a moment.

Which would turn out to be a bad move, as Cardin took the momentary lapse to roll, kicking her into the wall. He may have been slower than her but he definitely hit a hell of a lot harder. The damage she’d managed with two hits and his fall to his aura he managed to make up in one kick.

Immediately the crowd of students clamored for foul-play, but neither combatant heard them.

Cardin was pulling himself up from the ground as Velvet was pulling herself out of the wall, both of them glaring at the other. The kid gloves were off.

- _If he wants to fight me for real then fine…_ \- Velvet reached for her waist, grabbing her box.

“Velvet, don’t waste that on this prick!” Coco shouted from across the arena.

The bunny girl just smirked as the boy went and grabbed his mace, seeing her grab her weapon, “Oh, I’m not,” her voice was sweet but there was a strange edge to it as she pulled out a camera. There was a momentary flash and Cardin looked stunned as she lowered the camera, smirking at the boy, “just wanted to get the look on his face before I kick his ass!” with a grin she stowed her camera away in the box and tossed it to her teammate, getting back into her serious fighting stance.

With a snarl Cardin charged at her, swinging hard, not even hampered when he missed, taking chunks of the wall with his mace. Velvet ducked again, aiming a punch to his gut, but now that he was armed with his heavy weapon it actually sped up his turn giving her less opportunity to strike so it was much shallower than before. In a panic, she ducked his following swing and kicked him hard into the wall. There was a jolt from the impact that shook the stadium as Cardin was sent into the wall just as hard as when he hit her.

With a growl he pulled himself out, running at her, and this time when she moved to dodge he swung backwards, letting the momentum take him and while his mace missed his follow through punch got her in the chest, rocketing the smaller girl toward the back wall. Only Velvet was a much more agile huntress than him, spinning with the hit and landing on the wall with her legs, kicking off and rocketing back across the arena, spun midair and hit him full in the head with a powerful kick.

This time Cardin went _through_ the wall.

There was a ding as his aura on the large screen tapped into the red, but Velvet stood tall, watching the rubble knowing he wasn’t done yet.

With a groan the large boy pulled himself out of the rubble, mace still in hand and glaring at the damn bunny. If she could pull off stuff like this, why the hell did she _let_ him mess with her? Why the hell did she let _anyone_ mess with her?! With a roar he charged at her again, pressing the button on his mace, activating the red dust in the head and charging it reading to blow as he slammed down with everything he had left.

He was stopped before it even hit anything as seemingly without effort Velvet got off a one-two combo on his unarmored gut, ending with a spring kick to the head that sent him dropping to the ground, out like a light.

And that would have been the end of it, had his hand not still been holding the button on his weapon.

The second it dropped, the head of the mace glowing with unstable dust...

“CARDIN!!” acting on instinct and being the only one close enough with any kind of aura, Velvet jumped on the boy covering his unconscious body from the blast of his own weapon.

… hitting the ground it exploded.

Once the flash and loud explosion were done, the entire class could see Velvet, slightly burned but overall fine thanks to her aura on top of the unconscious bully.

The large board on the back wall beeped, indicating Velvet’s aura had gone into the red as well, the last blast taking out a majority of it despite being only splash damage.

“This exercise is over!” Professor Goodwitch’s voice boomed in the awkward silence as she stepped over to the two combatants down on the ground, glaring at the students just standing in their seats staring, “I hope you all have learned something from this, now you are dismissed!” despite the order it still took a couple of minutes for most of them to move.

Velvet had just protected Cardin, from his own weapon, despite just being in a heated fight with him and it being _Cardin Winchester_ …

It boggled everyone’s mind.

Professor Goodwitch promptly ignored the rest of her class, swearing that if they didn’t leave soon she’d start handing out detentions. But before that, she crouched down to check on the last two combatants, Velvet was already up, seemingly checking Cardin over, looking only a bit tired and worried, while Mr. Winchester still seemed to be unconscious from that last hit.

“Hey, Cardin? Wake up!” Ms. Scarlatina’s voice was more stressed than loud, apparently legitimately worried about the boy. Thankfully she wasn’t shaking him or slapping his face, that tended to cause more injury than helped.

Glynda moved to check his pulse, it seemed fine, then opening his eyes to see if he had any head trauma, “It seems Mr. Winchester is fine, for the most part, simply exhausted from using up his aura taking so much damage…”

Velvet sat back, looking somewhat defeated, “But he is okay, right?”

A trim blonde brow rose over the older woman’s glasses. She knew some people could be kind to a fault, and while she was legitimately proud one of her students could overlook their history and worry about the other’s wellbeing, she was uncertain how this would play out if the roles were reversed. With a sigh, Professor Goodwitch released the boy, “For now, yes, he seems to be alright, just exhausted.” Looking behind she noticed the boy’s team lingering not far off. She waved them over before turning back to Velvet, “I suggest you head to your next class Ms. Scarlatina, I’m sure Mr. Winchester’s team can take him back to his dormitory to rest.”

Snapping her head up at that, Velvet looked up to see Russel, Sky and Dove looking a bit nervous not far off. She blushed a bit out of embarrassment before jumping up and taking a step away, nodding to the boys, “P-please take care of him.”

The RDL of CRDL all looked at each other just as embarrassed and nervous, Russel scratching the back of his head and looking more at the ground than the girl in front of him, “Y-yea, we-we will, uh,” his beady eyes dashed between Velvet and her team a few times before he put his hands together in front of him, “Look! We’re sorry, kay? We-we won’t bug you, or anyone else ever again!” he cracked one eye open, looking legitimately sorry, “We can’t say nothing about Cardin, but we’ll try, okay?” with that Dove and Sky grabbed their leader’s arms and brought him up while Russel darted off to get the door. Soon enough Team CRDL was gone.

Professor Goodwitch watched the boys exit before turning to Velvet, giving a curt nod, “It’s time for you and your team to leave, Ms. Scarlatina…”

Velvet snapped back to Professor Goodwitch at her voice, nodding, “Y-yes, right!”

A hand came to rest on her back and when Velvet looked it turned out to be Coco, “Don’t worry Professor, we’ll keep an eye on her incase anything happens.”

“See that you do.” Professor Goodwitch pushed up her glasses and watched them intensely as Team CFVY left as well. That was certainly more eventful than planned.


	4. Enmity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, after the fight...

Enmity

Enmity was a feeling of being opposed or simply being hostile to someone or something.

It was a feeling Cardin was intimately familiar with. Whether towards his father, what he was, or everyone at this damn school, he couldn’t say he didn’t feel ‘opposed’ or general hostility towards all of it.

He woke up feeling drained, pissed off and something else he couldn’t really place.

The sound of her voice right before the blast seemed stuck in his head and no matter how long he laid in bed staring at the ceiling of his dorm room it wouldn’t go away. They were fighting all out weren’t they? Well, he was, she wasn’t… for some reason not using her weapon which was a damn camera of all things.

Was he not good enough? That Coco chick said not to waste her weapon on him. - _What the hell did that mean?_ -

He didn’t know how long he spent lying there staring at the ceiling but all he could think about were the last few memories he had. That damn bunny could fight, and even if his hits got her good she got plenty more in for the what? One? Of his? She danced around his clumsy moves like no problem, kicked a hell of a lot harder than her punches too. - _Didn’t she mention something about better leg muscles in the gym?_ \- he didn’t quite remember, might have something to do with going through a wall, but even still he supposed it’d make sense. She was a _rabbit_ after all, stupid fluffy things were all about kicking off and running away, right?

- _Wait… doesn’t that mean I’m the same?_ \- any other time and he would have immediately dismissed the thought in disgust, but right now? He was alone, no mirrors to glare at and break, no teammates to blow off, and especially no bunny girls to giggle at him. Just him, his bed, and the ceiling. No one to listen and judge.

- _If I’m… I am… I’m a…_ rabbit _faunus as well… right?_ \- he hated his tail, hated looking at it, hated being reminded about his deformity and hated most of all naming it. But she was right, he… he _was_ a rabbit faunus too, just like her. At least… at least so long as his stupid tail was involved. - _it’s what she said… nothing more!_ \- his mind could barely deal with that, but that wasn’t the point…

The point was, if he was… _like_ her, that meant he should have the same… advantages? Right? She obviously had hearing or something, with those big extra ears… - _What the hell does a tail give?_ \- what the hell were tails used for anyway? Dogs wagged them right? Momentarily he twitched his tail, which was hard since he was on his back and still in his armor thanks to likely his team just dumping him here before running off to wherever. Either way, he couldn’t exactly say he could ‘wag’ it, it mostly just went up and down, not so much side to side. - _The hell is that good for?_ -

Okay, so no _obvious_ benefits directly from his deformity. What else?

She kicked harder than he was sure he could swing his mace and she mentioned something about having more resistant muscles. It was always easy for him to work out, usually not as worn out as others and that just pissed them off.

- _Hrm…_ \- what else was there? Night vision? Nope, he certainly didn’t have that. He supposed he could always smell and hear good, not great enough to be worth mentioning. What else?

- _Damnit, I don’t know enough about stupid rabbits to tell…_ \- that was definitely a problem. Worse, because he already knew who to ask for an answer to that. He just… really, really, _really_ didn’t want to.

\-----

The next day for Velvet was… weird.

People kept looking at her oddly for one thing, the first years giving her a decent berth when she walked down the halls or some would smile at her in the strangest way. Yang and Nora from RWBY and JNPR ganged up on her between classes and were laughing about her comment she’d said during her fight with Cardin. It actually brought an embarrassed red hue to her features as she hadn’t realized she’d said that loud enough for others to hear. Thanks to the distraction of a bell she was able to slip away from the two vibrant juniors and disappear.

Okay, she beat up Cardin, that was… a thing. More so because it had been fairly public. It was the last match of the exhibition class between her senior team to all the first years, and yes, Coco, Fox and Yatsuhashi handled them all before her match. - _Honestly, they should be getting all this attention!_ \- She was not fond of all these eyes on her, as apparently word of that match had reached the other students.

It was combat school all over again!

- _Geez! My whole team solos a whole class and nothing… I take out ONE bully and everyone sees me like some kind of hero!_ \- it was truly frustrating. She liked her solitude and ability to slip around the school unnoticed, finding all the nooks and crannies to hide, now everyone was watching her every move! It was infuriating!

With her classes done for the day she managed to slink off to the library, where silence was heavily enforced. Blake, of course, found her there. Thankfully though the black-cat Faunus had more tact than her partner and kept her silence, giving an approving and encouraging smile before wandering off to find whatever book she’d come for.

Velvet actually sighed at her friend’s ‘dismissal’, making her way through the bookshelves to find her again and just collapse near the dark clad young woman and let her emotions vent for a moment. Blake wasn’t one to go around spreading rumors or secrets, if anything the black-cat Faunus probably knew, heard and seen more things than Velvet had in her idle meanderings looking for nice little places to hide.

Blake’s silent company was nice though, allowing the rabbit girl to relax as much as her nerves would allow and assess the day. If anyone came by to gawk or bother her she didn’t notice, likely Blake’s threatening amber eyes sending anyone wishing to interrupt her away. There were benefits to knowing predators Velvet supposed. The silly thought brought a smile to her lips.

Her bunny ears twitched when she picked up the sounds of something heavy headed their way. For a moment she thought it might be Yatsuhashi there to pick her up for a team meeting or something, but the closer the person got the more they ‘sounded’ too small to be her giant teammate. That caused her to open her eyes and quirk a brow. Blake was already turned towards the entrance to their aisle, and if Velvet didn’t know any better she had the impression her friend had her ‘hair on end’, puffing out like a cat would trying to look bigger and threatening to some new threat.

Blake was glaring narrowly over a book and obscuring most of Velvet’s presence when a big guy looked down their aisle and stopped.

“Velvet?” his voice was a harsh whisper and when Cardin looked down he saw the person he’d been looking for, only for a set of amber eyes to cut into his line of sight, “Get outta my way Blake, I need to talk to her!”

Standing in front of her, Blake simply lowered her book and stared at the taller boy, seemingly not bothered by his presence at all, “What’s so important **_you_** need to talk to her?”

Velvet could hear his fists clinch at his sides. She leaned over enough to look around Blake and could tell, just by looking at Cardin, he was restraining his initial response. She’d become oddly familiar with this state as the last few times they’d talked he’d held himself back in a similar manner.

With a growl his narrow indigo eyes ignored the black haired girl and looked to Velvet, who was leaning around and looking at him anyway, “Look, I need to ask you some stuff…” for a moment his eyes darted to Blake nervously then back to Velvet, “Some _Faunus_ stuff…”

Rabbit ears bobbed, Velvet could clearly hear the shift in his tone and the way he was looking at her… - _Is he asking about his tail? Like actual help?_ \- the thought that he was _finally_ taking her advice, maybe, brightened her thoughts considerable. A smile broke out across her adorable face as she stood up, dusting off her skirt, “Oh, really? That’s great-!!”

Unfortunately, there was a certain black-cat standing between the two bunnies. Blake was still narrowly glaring at Cardin, “What kind of _stuff_?”

If Velvet could hear the desperate plea in Cardin’s voice, she could _definitely_ hear the growl in Blake’s, not to mention how her bow lowered slightly. - _Crap! She has no idea what she’s-!!_ \- “Um, Blake-”

“None of your damn business!” Cardin snapped back, moving to push the black haired girl out of the way if he had to. It was bad enough he needed… was _admitting_ … this bullshit to Velvet, he didn’t have time to deal with other people!

Blake stood her ground, glaring at the former-bully and Velvet got the distinct imagine in her mind of a cat extending its claws, “I’m making it _my_ business,” she took a step forward, “Whatever you have to ask Velvet you can say in front of me.”

Velvet wanted to facepalm. While she appreciated Blake’s protective nature of her fellow Faunus, this blustering wasn’t helping. Worse, Blake had no idea just _what_ Cardin really was… and there was no way she’d get a straight answer out of whatever information he was looking for so long as others were around. - _Geez, if I thought Blake was paranoid about her bow, Cardin’s even worse…_ \- in a normal situation this thought would have made her smile, right now, it was exhausting. “Blake, I’m sure-”

Cardin’s whole body shook and for a moment it looked like he’d back down and relent to the terms, only to tighten his fists harder and glare more intensely, “This has _nothing_ to do with you, so butt out! I have to ask Velvet because she’s a Faunus, not _you!_ ”

Screw it, Velvet face-palmed. - _Oh, wow… how wrong you are Cardin…_ -

If anything the accusation really just made Blake angrier, “So what? You have questions about Faunus, ask them, or look them up!” she waved her hand, “We’re in a library after all. There is no reason for you to need to bully her anymore!”

“Bully!” Now they were shouting, great! “I didn’t come here to mess with her! I came to ask a few stupid questions! About our fight!”

“Then ask them!” it was weird how Blake didn’t necessarily yell but still sounded just as threatening, “I’m not leaving her alone with you just so you can threaten her again!”

“YOU’RE NOT A FAUNUS!! THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU!!”

“THAT DOESN’T MATTER!”

Honestly, if they didn’t quit someone was going to do something stupid and they’d get-

“Shhh!”

-shushed by the librarians, or teachers, or other students or… screw it.

As the two looked back to glare at whoever had shushed them, Velvet slipped around Blake and stood between the two, only gaining back their attention as she put her hands up between them, shouting at them in a harsh whisper, “Would you two stop it!”  

Amber and indigo eyes glared at each other.

Velvet just cleared her throat, getting their attention, “Look,” chocolate eyes stared at both intensely for a minute before continuing, “Cardin, this is for a project, _right_?” she gave him an intense look, hoping he was smart enough to grab the opportunity she was offering him, “I’m sure Professor Goodwitch wants you to analyze why you lost, _right_?”

For a moment Cardin looked stunned, then blinked, shifting his gaze between the two girls and ending on Velvet’s intense look, “Y-yea…” he gave a thuggish pout and looked away.

Velvet released a small sigh, that was a start, then turned to Blake who still looked ready to jump into a fight. - _Yang is **really** rubbing off on her, hehe_ \- the bunny girl couldn’t help the small smirk on her lips at the thought as she placed her hand on her friend’s shoulder, “And Blake, I’ll be fine!” Velvet gave her best smile, hoping to dissuade the girl from doing anything else, “I can take care of myself, promise!”

Blake continued to glare, her intense amber eyes never leaving Cardin’s face even if the boy was looking everywhere but them. When she finally looked back at her friend there was an odd intensity to her eyes, she was obviously trying to convey something, probably comfort, with her eyes alone, “He does anything,” her intense feline eyes turned to the boy threateningly, “Call, I’ll find you and deal with him…” it wasn’t a threat, but a promise, as Blake’s predatory eyes measured the bully before turning around, taking her book to one of the tables nearby but out of sight.

Velvet just sighed, “Well, that was intense…”

Cardin just gave her a disgruntled look, opening his mouth to say something…

Only for Velvet to put her hand over his mouth, silencing him. She looked at him pointedly, raising one finger to her lips a second before pointing the opposite way Blake went. They need to find an exit and fast, Velvet had no doubt Blake would follow them or at the very least listen in if they were nearby. She loved her friends, she really did, but sometimes they could be just so damn nosey.

\-----

Now, Blake did promise she’d let Velvet handle it, in her own way. She **_did_** ‘promise’ to not get involved unless called upon.

That arrangement said nothing about stealthily following the bunny-Faunus and school bully…

After all, Velvet was her friend and she needed to be within earshot, just in case… this was best done at a vantage where she could keep an eye on the two. Duel feline ears be damned.

Blake had to give Velvet some credit, she had no idea the cheery and obvious bunny girl could slip away so silently, or quickly for that matter, and cover a good bit of distance without anyone noticing. Even Cardin was being surprisingly quiet. Had Blake truly slipped away from the two after the argument and not continued her stealthy observation she may have actually lost them.

But she was Former-White Fang, stealth ops were her specialty.

And she was a cat.

Her feline heritage would be very upset with her if she let a bunny slip away so easily, even if Velvet seemed to automatically apply decoy maneuvers: darting around objects quickly, taking odd turns one wouldn’t expect, it was like she was applying her own heritage tactics.

Blake had to stop herself from snorting, not only would it give her away, but it was foolish to think about. Faunus weren’t animals… just people, normal, everyday people… with a few extra qualities.

“Jeez, Velvet,” Cardin growled, rudely wrenching his hand out of the bunny girl’s hand and busying himself with rubbing his burning legs. He didn’t get the urgency but following her movements weren’t exactly ‘hard’ just not what he was used too.

The brunette didn’t seem to be paying attention to him, not even caring as he yanked his hand out of hers, as she looked around the treetops. Her ears twitched at every sound, along with her nose and the hairs on the back of her neck were still raised, “You feel that?”

With a grunt Cardin stood straighter, rubbing the back of his neck and scowling at her, “Feel what?”

Bright brown eyes turned on the boy, blinked, then she got a funny look on her face, rubbing the back of her neck, “Oh, it’s probably nothing, hehe…”

“Keh,” he grunted, moving to take off his jacket and sit on a nearby log, waving it out, “Yea whatever, stop doin’ that, it’s giving me the creeps…”

Velvet chuckled again, putting her hands behind her back and skipping closer to him, leaning down to whisper in his ear, really just to bug him, “Oh? Something wrong with me smiling at _you_ ~”

“Gu-gah!” the large boy’s face went bright red, from the proximity! It was weird! This weirdo girl who should hate him getting so close and-and smiling and _giggling_ at him! “Stop that damnit!”

“Hehehe,” Velvet giggled to herself, leaning back a bit before taking a seat about a foot away from the boy on the log. She tapped her chin with a smug grin, “That sounds so familiar, now where have I heard that before?” she may have leaned somewhat closer to him.

Cardin just growled, probably putting holes in his jacket from wringing it as he bit through grit teeth, “Shut it, rabbit!”

“You first, Bunny-boy~” this time she leaned in even slower and tapped him on the nose.

For a second Cardin when bright scarlet, then vibrated, and in a fit of rage jumped to his feet and started stomping around, “Goddamnit!! You fucking bunny-girl!! Just-you-ARGH!!”

Velvet watched him stomp around for a minute, hand of her mouth and eyes wide frozen in place. Then hearing his words and realizing all this ‘anger’ was likely more at himself for getting played by her teasing, started laughing.

“And again, THAT FUCKING GIGGLING!!” he growled, showing his back to her and arms up in the air frustrated.

The poor bunny girl couldn’t help it, she laughed more at his impotent rage.

“All this for fucking you! And all you do is laugh!!” he continued to growl, “Monty you are such a BITCH!!”

The insult piqued her curiosity, she’d been called worse in her life so the word really did nothing to her, especially since she also knew she wasn’t a female dog, she was a rabbit and proud! But that back to the curiosity, brown eyes glanced at the boy and realized why he took off his jacket.

Right above Cardin’s belt was his fluffy brown tail waving up and down. It seemed he cut a hole in his dress shirt allowing it to stick out while his undershirt was tucked in, though the position for his tail didn’t look particularly comfortable pushed up a bit by the belt, but it was progress.

The area was filled with some immeasurable squeal, and Blake nearly fell out of her position up in the tree above the two when Velvet seemed to teleport behind the boy with the brightest smile she’d ever seen on the girl, who was giggling, and looked to be… _touching_ something behind Cardin.

The black feline’s face went a bit red when only really one conclusion made itself present in her head, but that just made no goddamn sense!

Down below, Velvet was in stupid fluff heaven. The adorable of the wiggling freely brown appendage made her giddy and she couldn’t resist petting it or giggling. It really was just too cute. Stupid bunny brain signals overriding her sanity.

Cardin just grumbled under his breath, flatly staring ahead with his hands on his hips as he let her do as she pleased for a few minutes. When he did this decidedly **_stupid_** thing, like take one of Russel’s knives and slice one of his uniform shirts from the waist down along the seam to let his **_goddamn-_** tail out a bit under his uniform jacket, he had done it **_purely_** as a way to get on this damn girl’s good side. She was the only one he could turn to for his **_STUPID_** problems and really… the damn fluffy fucking thing was the best way to bribe her.

“Stupid thing…” he growled.

“It’s cute! Not stupid…” Velvet responded without looking away from the fluffy appendage, “And really, it seems to be doing so much better since last I saw it!”

“Keh,” Cardin just grunted, keeping his eyes forward. If his tail moved a bit more enthusiastically it was the damn thing itself, **_not_** him!

“Its true!” another giggle from the bunny girl as she finally pulled her hands away, it was a lot of effort, but she felt she needed to say this to the boy’s face. With a small step she leaned over his tight angsty frame and smiled in his line of sight, “It looks a lot better than the first time you showed me, and even the last time where I had to pull it out myself~”

At that last comment Blake’s face went red and one of her amber eyes twitched. What in the world were they talking about and why did this sound like flirting? - _Velvet what the hell are you doing!? This is_ **CARDIN!!** _And what the hell are they talking about?!_ \- sadly from her vantage she couldn’t see what Velvet was… doing whatever too, and the black cat woman felt is she tried to move she’d fall out of the tree as her normal grace was currently fumbling with what she was seeing and hearing.

It seemed Cardin agreed with Blake, even if he had no idea she was there, as his face turned an even bright shade of scarlet as he rounded on the damn bunny-girl! “WHAT THE HELL?!”

“Hehe,” Velvet of course just giggled at the poor boy, “Oh don’t look so silly, you know it needed to be let out~”

“That’s not the POINT!! ARGH!!” the big boy just started pulling his hair out.

And now that he had moved Blake could _see_ what Velvet was talking about… and her mind went blank: completely, utterly, confused.

Velvet just waved her hand, smirking and feeling she’d tortured the boy enough, “I was being serious!” she smiled at him, “I can tell you’ve been taking care of it! I’m proud of you!”

There was a growl as the boy just covered his face with his hands facing the sky. After a second of this his hands slipped down, along with his face, and narrow indigo eyes just glared at the bunny girl, “So glad to make you happy.” It was obvious sarcasm but did nothing to damper the chipper girl’s smile, and that slightly irritated Cardin even more, “We done with this bullshit now?”

Brown eyes rolled as Velvet put her hands on her hips, “Fiiiiiine,” she looked at him seriously, “Alright, what did you want to ask?”

The boy’s eyes blinked, surprised by the quick shift, but still he felt no real malice from the damn girl. She had every right to screw with him like she had, even to tell him to quit bitching and let her screw with him more… instead she just got down to business, trying to help him out. She made no damn sense.

With a frustrated growl he ran a hand through his short hair, “What are the… _advantages_ …” the word was practically a growl as he looked away frustrated he had to ask this out loud, “… to being a… a _Faunus_.” If she didn’t say anything he was never asking again, just forget this BS and move on with his life.

Velvet watched him seriously, trying to gauge where he was with this. He obviously wasn’t fully on board with accepting what he was, still fighting it on some level and the self-loathing and shame were still obviously there. But he was here, and he was asking. That was something.

She crossed her arms, nodding and thinking over the things she noticed about herself, her family and any humans she knew, “Well, aside from the normal heightened senses, we get certain other physiological advantages.” She smirked, catching his glaring glance, “You may have noticed in the fight I kick a lot harder than you, hmm?” she wasn’t gloating, not-at-all~

Indigo eyes narrowed, but at least he was facing her now.

Velvet just took that as he noticed, she smirked, “To be fair, your own kicks are good, but I’m guessing you’ve only ever focused on your upper body for strength, hmm?”

There was a grunt as the boy got an annoyed look on his face, “The chest and arms are what you swing with, so I work on those mostly,” he shrugged, looking away, “Never really needed to work on my legs much…”

Velvet giggled but hid it behind her hand, he was so oblivious, “That’s what I thought,” she shook her head, “You are the worst Rabbit-Faunus I’ve ever seen!”

“Say what?!” narrow indigo eyes burrowed into the girl across from him. Cardin didn’t like being called a Faunus, or having any damn association with the damn animals, despite what he’d been dealing with lately, but that was no reason for her to call him the _worst!_

“Yup, definitely the worst!” Velvet nodded her head firmly.

Cardin took a threatening step forward, “The hell with you! Its not like there’s a fucking manual or anyone ever told me about-!!”

The rabbit girl had one hand up, two fingers on the boy’s lips shutting him up, and a wry smirk on her face, “I know,” her smirk widened into a grin, “That’s why I’m here to help you!”

His only response was to twitch an eye and glare at her. The sheer _audacity_ of this damn girl!

Still grinning Velvet moved her fingers to bop him on the nose lightly, “Trust me, do a few little things and you’ll be up to my level in no time!”

Now he glared at her, “That’s low…”

She smiled, “I know,” then she whipped around quickly, hands behind her back and took a few steps away before turning back around looking authoritative, “Firstly, your diet! Change it!”

“What?!” was all Cardin got out.

“Trust me!” she waved her hand out as if she had a switch and it had the surprising effect of the boy standing up straight. Brown eyes blinked before letting that detail slide for the moment, “We’re rabbit! We don’t eat nothing but meat!” she pumped up both her fists! “A little is fine everyone once in a while, but our real power comes from veggies! Lots of them! Green leafy things especially! Unless its winter! Then its potatoes and other root veggies!”

Indigo eyes rolled, “What, no carrots?”

Velvet put one hand into a fist and punched her other palm, “NO CARROTS!” there was a fire in the bunny-girl’s eyes and it momentarily scared the other two in the area. Then Velvet realized what she said, blushed a bit, then cleared her throat, “I mean, only if you want…” she waved her hand, “Not all rabbit Faunus like carrots…”

“Ugh… right…” a brown brow was up on the boy’s forehead wondering where the hell that came from, but decided she was already scary enough, no reason to go ask. At least, for now.

“Ahem,” Velvet just coughed into her hand, ignoring that last slip up, “Next, I want you to put some extra effort into your leg training,” she whipped her hand quickly pointing to his legs, “Just because its easier, doesn’t mean they don’t need it! If you want to be able to kick like a real rabbit, you got to work for it!” more fist pumping!

Cardin just gave her a funny look, “Okay… anything else?”

“Run.” She said flatly.

The brow on the boy’s forehead went higher, “What?”

“Run,” the bunny girl nodded her head, ears bobbing as she did so, “I want you to start running, right now, as far and as fast as you can for the next hour.”

A flat glare was her response but the boy started taking off his vest and undershirt, “I don’t get a choice in this do I?”

An immediate shake of her head in the negative was her response, “Nope!” Velvet grinned, not nearly as sinister as moments ago but still not exactly trustworthy, “You want to start paying me back? You’re going to work for it!”

The boy just growled taking off his belt, “Do I at least get to keep my pants?”

“Hmmmmm…” the bunny girl tapped her chin and left him hanging long enough for Cardin’s eyes to widen comically. Then she waved her hand, giggling, “Yes, yes, I’m not _that_ mean.”

The glare he sent her said otherwise, but he got ready, “Anything else?”

She simply nodded, “Mmhmm, stick to the forest, run, jump, hide, do whatever you have to to not get caught with that cute tail of yours out,” she winked at him making him uncomfortable, “Trust me, we rabbits are prey creatures, we have to know how to slip away unnoticed.”

“Heh,” the boy grunted, jogging in place for a second to psyche himself up, “Like you always seem to-ack!!”

Velvet smacked him, full hand, on the ass, “Get going!” she waved as he ran off into the woods around Beacon.

With Cardin gone, Blake slipped down to the forest floor, landing on her feet easily, “You knew I was here the whole time.”

“Yep!” Velvet turned from her wave nonplussed, “The ears aren’t just for show you know.”

Amber eyes rolled as the cat woman crossed her arms, “So…”

“So…?” Velvet eyed her with a raised brow.

Blake narrowly glared at her, “What is this, and how long has it been going on?”

Velvet just sighed.

She should have made Cardin run for two hours…

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to you guys reading and kudos-ing this! glad you like and again, i'd love to hear from you! :D


	5. Disdain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things happen, things are assumed, and once again we learn miscommunication is the mother of disaster...

Disdain

Disdain was the feeling that something or someone was unworthy of another’s attention or respect. They were basically contemptable things not worth scraping off one’s boot.

Cardin Winchester generally fit into this category… at least, he was supposed to… for _most_ people.

The past week had been… quiet.

That was one way of putting it for Blake. After finding out what she did about, of all people, Cardin from, _of all people_ , Velvet, the former White Fang operative and incognito black cat Faunus had no idea what to think of the world she lived in.

Things were supposed to be black and white. The world she left was the one that was shadows, everything hidden, everything tainted by grey to the point she couldn’t see any ‘light’ anymore. That’s why she left, none of it made sense anymore. The White Fang, their mission, people… Adam. Learning one thing had thrown off the entire center of the world she’d grown up in, changing it from black and white to just grey.

That wasn’t how it was supposed to be out here. Humans were humans, Faunus were Faunus, separate but definitely not equal in social circles, politics and all the things that mattered. She could justify pretending to be a human to herself because she was hiding from the White Fang, hiding from the police, hiding from the _world!_ It wasn’t vanity, it was survival!

Everyone would treat her differently if they knew she was a Faunus.

Sure, her team had made it abundantly clear they didn’t care, even Weiss, as weird as that was. The girl whose family she grew up hating, the heiress who grew up hating Faunus… and they were on the same team and she’d even go so far as to say they were friends… good friends, in fact.

Why did learning one fact about the school bully, from her friend, just throw off her entire perception of her life now and bring up so many inane details. Like her friendship with _Weiss Schnee_ and how… wrong? that was, in the perception she thought she saw the world.

Cardin Winchester was a Faunus. _Cardin_ Winchester was a _Faunus_. Cardin **_WINCHESTER_** was a **_FAUNUS_**.

It made no sense.

“Blake… Blake… Blaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake!” a pale hand was waving in front of her face.

Amber eyes blinked as Blake’s focus returned to the world around her, “I’m sorry,” she turned to her side, glancing at her partner who was sitting next to her at their usual cafeteria table, “Did you say something, Yang?”

The golden blonde set her chin on her hand, elbow on the table, and pouted openly at her black haired friend, “Yea I’ve just been talking to you for the past fifteen minutes and you didn’t say a word.”

“That’s really not that strange,” across the table Weiss sat pristinely, cutting the skin off her apple.

Yang’s lilac eyes flatly glared at the white girl, “Yes, it is!” the busty blonde threw up her hands bouncing in her seat, “Because sure, normally, Blake’s all quiet, but at least she’s _paying attention to me!!_ ”

“Aww does baby want some attention,” the heiress quipped without looking.

Ruby, who was stuffing her face next to her partner choked for a second and got a horrified look on her face.

Weiss didn’t even flinch as red eyes glared at her from across the table, just patting her partner’s back to make sure the dolt didn’t die.

With a lot of effort, and growling, Yang clinched her fists, keeping them above the table and away from anything to limit any possible damage, “You are **_so_** lucky my baby sister likes you Ice Queen, otherwise I’d be _this_ …” she shoved one of her hand in Weiss’ face, holding the thumb and index finger about an inch apart, “… close to smashing you through a wall!”

Icy blue eyes just narrowed and Weiss opened her mouth to retort-

“Weiss, please don’t.” Ruby coughed, turning silver puppy eyes on her partner, “She’s just crabby because Blake’s been acting all weird which has honestly been kind of weirding me out too, same with Zwei, and-”

“Fine!” Weiss threw up her hands, “I give up! You win!” she was rewarded with a squeal and red latching onto her, making the snow queen quiver at the unwanted contact. “Get off me!”

After watching her whole team be… themselves honestly, Blake just sighed, “I’m not acting weird,” Which she knew was a bold-faced lie, “Just had a lot on my mind.”

“Like what?” Yang leaned in close, eyes back to their normal sunny lilac without a shred of red.

Part of Blake cringed at the honestly curious look. She knew her partner would ask, and _knew_ it’d be bad if she lied to her, more than she already had, but this really wasn’t something she wanted to talk to **_any_** of them about. As racist as it sounded in her head, this was a Faunus matter, they really couldn’t help, “Its nothing, really…”

“It’s not nothing,” blonde brows furrowed, “You’ve been quieter than usual, sure you’re quiet, but you haven’t even been reading!” Yang threw up her hands confused, “And most of the time you’re dazed and don’t even realize I’m there!” she put her hand on her partner’s shoulder, “It’s weird, please stop, or let me help or something cause this is literally driving me insane!” ending with a quivering lip and lilac puppy eyes that told Blake exactly where Ruby learned it from.

Blake had to bite her tongue not to growl, more so not to roll her eyes as she just closed them and took a deep breath. Those damnable eyes did not affect her and _would not_ affect her, “There’s nothing you can do, it’s not something…” her mind stopped short. It really wasn’t her business, technically she shouldn’t know herself and it just made everything so freaking awkward she had spent a week just _thinking_ about it not knowing what to do. - _What would Yang do if she knew?_ \- she had honestly no idea, the blonde brawler was extremely unpredictable at the best of times, not so much when she was angry, but was this something to be angry about? Shaking her head Blake just pushed all her intrusive thoughts aside, “Just let it go, it’s not even something I’m supposed to talk about.”

“Huh?” Yang just looked at her confused.

Having really no other choice, Blake just grabbed her tray and got up to go. She couldn’t talk to her team about it because they weren’t involved. She couldn’t talk to anyone really about it because it wasn’t her secret to spill. And the sheer idea of talking to either two involved just shook her entire world to its very core.

Cardin Winchester was a Faunus… a Rabbit Faunus… and for whatever reason, Velvet Scarlatina was helping him figure himself out.

It made no goddamn sense.

On her way out, amber eyes scanned the room, spotting the bully who wasn’t what he said he was, sitting alone at one end of the cafeteria and on the other end was her friend, probably keeping an eye on him.

It really made no sense.

She needed to breath, it was way too confining in here for her to think.

\-----

Now, most people assumed Yang was stupid, either from the blonde hair or her ditzy-carefree attitude about most things. What these people failed to realize was that Yang Xiao Long was anything but stupid. Sure, probably not the best academically, her personal choice since tests and class were mostly boring and she had literally better things to do, but she wasn’t an idiot.

She survived her mom dying, had to accept that wasn’t her ‘real’ mom, face her dad at his worst, and keep it all hidden by a bright smile to make sure her baby sister grew up okay and safe.

Yang Xiao Long wasn’t stupid, she learned very young the responsibility of an adult and the caring and nurturing nature of a parent. She had to in order to take care of her broken family. Sure, that didn’t mean she didn’t rebel some herself or pursue her own interests, she just knew the little details that set people off and how to hide her problems with a smile and lots of warm hugs.

So she **_knew_** there was something bugging Blake, tried to play it off as something simple and selfish to prod a bit and maybe tease it out. But Blake really was the master at slipping away from a tough situation, so she had to improvise and observe. Yang had to take care of Ruby for nearly half her life, she knew how to catch details really quick.

So she noticed the confused and troubled look on Blake’s face as she left the cafeteria, noticed the ways the black haired girl looked and figured out exactly who her targets were.

Yang Xiao Long may not have been as stupid as others thought, but she did have a temper and a natural blind spot when it came to those she cared about. Social decorum be damned.

\------

Cardin was really starting to feel a lumbering sickness in his gut, not just about everything around him but mostly about himself.

He glared down at the bacon salad in front of him.

He really _hated_ to admit he really liked the stupid thing. Before the only time he ate lettuce was on a hamburger and even then it was only half the time. Something he was starting to realize was probably conditioned into him from his bastard of an old man. The Legate determined the chow order, and he was beat till he ate everything in front of him. That taught him to eat a lot quickly and not even think about the flavor.

A prissy fucking salad with a few bits of bacon tasted pretty fucking good.

He couldn’t stand the idea of not eating _some_ kind of meat with his food, it just wasn’t in him, he was a **_MAN_** after all. Men ate meat. It’s what gave him the protein to keep his muscles big. He needed it, sort of.

He supposed technically he didn’t need _as_ much red meat as he was used to eating and he didn’t feel as heavy and sluggish since he started replacing a few meals with a salad. There was a surprising number to choose from, they got really complex and each tasted different depending on the dressings or garnishes.

He hated to admit how interesting food could be.

Sky caught him dicking around on his scroll looking up different kinds of salads and made some stupid comment. He popped him in the nose and went for a run.

That was another thing he hated. He liked running, apparently. It was weirdly… liberating? Just bouncing around in the woods with no one else… okay, occasionally Velvet actually joined him but she was so much faster than him he could only keep up for a few minutes while she passed and then bitch himself out as he watched her effortlessly slip around obstacles he still tripped over.

She may have been right about the running and doing more leg exercises helping him out, but he was still clumsy as fuck. He was used to wearing armor, carrying gear, and standing firm in his battles, not this bouncing around bunny bullshit. She might be able to teach him a few things that got him in a better mood and using his deformed body more to his advantage, but he was still a lumbering lug taught to be heavy and just hit things.

He’d never be as quick or graceful as her. It just wasn’t right, never would be.

Whatever, he still had his salad to finish up.

That is until someone grabbed the edge of his tray and threw it into the back wall.

“I was eating that,” was his flat response. He’d gotten so used to people bitching and blaming him for things behind his back he almost forgot what an actual confrontation felt like.

“Not anymore.” The voice was a low growl.

Glancing to his side Cardin spotted the telltale blonde mane, sighed deeply and wondered what in the great wide world of Remnant he’d done to piss off the berserker of Team RWBY, “What do you want, Yang?” his voice was gruff but flat, trying to ignore the blonde maniac and determine how long he’d have to go without a meal thanks to this, “Far as I can tell I don’t have a beef with you…”

A bare knuckled fist slammed on the table next to him and he knew if he looked there’d either be a dent or the plastic melted, “That’s simple, I want an answer: what did you do?”

Indigo eyes just started flatly ahead with a low groan, “Great, what am I being blamed for now?” was he a bit snippy? Maybe.

This of course was not the right answer, as Yang grabbed the collar of his shirt and brought him up to her level, giving the former-bully a great view of those blood red eyes, “I don’t know what you did, but it involved you and Velvet, and its messing up my partner bad,” there was a growl, “And Blake doesn’t get screwed up except for serious things, get me.”

Cardin made a face. Confused beyond all reason did not cover it, “The fuck?” the muscles around his eyes scrunched, he was seriously drawing a blank, “Last time I saw your damn partner she was grilling me for asking Velvet a few questions!” with a bit of anger he raised his arms and threw Yang’s grip off his neck, standing his few inches over her and snarling, “So I dunno what the fuck you got going on in your head, but I haven’t done a damn **_THING_** to that bookworm or that damn rabbit!” he rounded, waving his hands out angry, trying to get away, “So get the fuck out of my face and go handle your own problems without blaming me!”

“Get back here!” Yang, still in blind fury, took the few steps to grab the taller boy’s shoulder, “I’m not done with you! I know you did **_something_**! Blake wouldn’t be hung up on it for the past week if it wasn’t serious and I’m gonna figure this out!”

“Good!” Cardin yelled, grabbing her arm to throw it off, “Go figure it out! Leave me the fuck alone!”

“It’s something you did!” she grabbed him again.

“I haven’t **_done_** anything!!” he yelled back, throwing his hand out to remove the brawler again.

Only this swing was interpreted as a hit and Yang grabbed it, face set in a snarl, and Cardin had a single moment before a fiery fist came blazing his way.

His only thought was ‘why me?’

\-----

Like most students during the lunch block Velvet had been eating.

Okay, so she spent the time _usually_ spying on Cardin as well, just to make sure he was taking her advice, which she was honestly surprised he had been. He’d actually been doing it the whole week so at this point she didn’t feel the need to ‘watch’ him so closely, especially since the few people that bothered to pay attention to her noticed her looking and assumptions started getting thrown around she felt uncomfortable addressing.

No, she was not wary of the bully. No, strangely enough, she did not feel he was going to bother her again. it was abundantly clear, if not for his lack of physical violence then from their fight, that the boy was **_not_** going to mess with her any time soon. It was actually somewhat… depressing? That their only positive, sort of, interaction came about because of serendipity and not actual effort on either of their parts. Well, not completely… she could have left him alone with a stubbed tail, but that would have been mean and…

Anyway!

The tentative _former_ -bully was now a strange subject in her life. Did she like him? No. That was evident by her not publicly seeking him out. Did she feel safe around him? Not really? It was complicated. He seemed… ‘normal’ enough around her, but he still had bouts of rampant violence and really she’d only get close to him because his tail. That damn thing was apparently her weakness, and the more the boy accepted it the more he brought it out, and the more it affected her. It was a cruel irony that her own kindness might be her downfall.

He was not someone she trusted. Not really. At least that’s what she told herself.

He was, at best, a charity case. She felt sympathetic towards the reality of his life, and while that didn’t erase his actions it… it helped explain them… somewhat.

Part of her cursed the fact she grew up with a loving family that taught her to be kind to those that would more than likely harm her. It was the ‘best’ way to deal with them, because most people just didn’t know what to do with open, honest kindness… Cardin certainly didn’t.

But still, even just being around the boy could be stressful and usually it was only short periods… that she may have been using to her advantage to tease him, somewhat… as payback.

Velvet sighed, “I’m so petty.”

As soon as the words left her lips her ears popped up as some shouting started on the other side of the cafeteria. Already students were standing up and crowding around.

Her bunny ears bobbed as she recognized both voices, “Cardin… Yang?” honestly, she looks away from the boy for a second to contemplate things and already there was trouble.

With an open sigh she got up and tried to see what was going on. unfortunately, despite her relative height, there was still a good hundred or so students in front of her. Making a face, Velvet decided this wouldn’t do.

Crouching momentarily, she bounced into the air, doing a little flip for flair and hopped along a few students until she landed on someone close enough to get a decent view. Unfortunately, this person was also completely unstable so while she windmilled and they yelped, she hopped over to the person next to them who was much more stable.

“Jaune!” apparently she was standing on the Mistralian Champion Pyrrha Nikos, no wonder these shoulders were stable!

“Eheheh,” Velvet nervously giggled looking down at the redhead that looked at her partner worried before wryly up at her. The bunny girl put her hands together in a small prayer position, pleading, “One moment please?”

The only response from the stalwart champion was the cross her arms, raise a brow and not move.

Velvet just smiled, looking out over the crowd. Pyrrha was always a reasonable person she found, they shared history class, along with Pyrrha’s partner, Cardin and Blake.

Putting her hand like a visor over her eyes, Velvet scouted what the commotion was. The result honestly surprised her. Yang just punched Cardin over the table he normally sat at alone and he bounced back with a growl.

“The **_FUCK?!_** ” she cringed at his cruel yell, so much for progress.

Yang just charged him, hand back and ready for a serious fight. Whatever Cardin did to piss her off must have been serious as her hair had that glow to it that told everyone in the vicinity she was pissed-beyond-all-reason, literally.

- _He’s not dumb enough to mess with her hair, right?_ \- she really hoped he didn’t do anything suicidal like mess with the blonde’s hair. No one could explain it, but you touch one strand of those golden locks and the girl just went **_OFF_**. No exceptions.

Luckily she was, relatively, a slow fighter, and depending on how vindictive she felt could go full scary-stalker. It really was terrifying, even from this distance.

Cardin managed to back away with a few dodge maneuvers she’d like to say were attributed to her ‘training’ him but that could be debated later. Right now the boy was nearly in a corner and his own anger seemed about to boil over.

 She really wanted to give him some credit for holding off this long… in fact she didn’t want him to fight back period. - _If he does, people will just blame him…_ \- they’d probably blame him anyway and she knows a few weeks ago, before this whole fiasco, she would have too.

So she was surprised to realize her hands were cupped around her mouth and she was shouting, “ _RUN!!_ ”

The anger on his face seemed to sap away, replaced by confusion for a moment before he looked at her.

It was the strangest sensation she’d ever felt in her life.

Luckily it went away as soon as he turned away, turning around and just running around the cafeteria. Yang was confused only for a second before charging after him, people and tables going flying in her solitary path to get her target.

Even blocked in Cardin didn’t stop, bouncing around walls, throwing people in the way, and finally crashing through the windows to escape his captor.

Velvet couldn’t help the snort from her position.

“ ** _HEY!!_** ” when Yang stopped at the broken window, fury abated enough that she didn’t chase after him, just frustratingly banging her fist on the broken sill, and breaking it more, before turning to the crowd of on lookers, “WHAT?!”

Velvet quickly slipped off from her perch, Pyrrha automatically catching her bridal style causing the bunny girl to blink and look at the redhead confused.

The Mistralian just shrugged, “Sorry?”

Velvet just smirked, faux-swooning slightly, “My hero~” before leaping out of the younger girl’s arms and running off to find the closest exit.

It was at this point Jaune, who’d since managed to pick himself up from his impromptu fall, glanced at his partner, at the way the bunny girl went, back and forth a few times and scratched the back of his neck confused, “Uh, Pyrrha?”

Her only response was to shrug, just as confused as her team leader.

\-----

A benefit of running around the forest with his tail out was Cardin’s own paranoia about his disfigurement being seen caused him to find hiding spots surprisingly better. Thanks to the runs he got more familiar with the grounds of Beacon and better at finding small spots, well ‘small’ enough for him to fit in, to hide quickly when he thought someone might have wandered into the woods and might see him.

This seemed to work well running around Beacon as well, as he found a nice back corner shaded on one side and hidden behind bushes. Weeks ago he never would have given the décor around Beacon a single thought, now he couldn’t help but consider spots for hiding if needed.

He supposed, if he thought tactically, this would be an advantage in combat… and wondered why he was never taught such a simple thing.

But that didn’t matter right now, as he had a fiery she-demon on his tail, pun not intended, for whatever reason and depending on whatever she was talking about and who she told, all of Beacon. Really, were people that bored they had to make stuff up to blame on him!

“ ** _DAMNIT!!_** ” he shouted before ducking off into the small patch, putting his hands over his mouth. Why the hell did he yell! Why the hell couldn’t he do simple things right! No wonder he never learned any kind of stealth tactics, he was useless at them. – _Just a big dumb animal meant to take hits…_ -

When he realized his thoughts and the level of truth they held he punched the ground.

Pulling up his knees, he put his head down, covering it with his other arm and he punched the ground again. And again. And again. Until he didn’t feel it anymore.

He was just a big dumb animal. All he was good for was taking hits and delivering them right back. Why bother with tactics when he was too stupid to understand them or their significance. He didn’t need them, just point him in the direction of the enemy and he made a perfect distraction.

If he died, oh well.

If he survived, point him somewhere else.

Rinse, repeat until he just never came back.

He hit the ground again with a fraction of his normal strength.

That was all he had left, all he really was from the start.

“Cardin?” the rustling of leaves met him with a soft voice. Of course she would find him. She always found him.

He was too far into his own self-loathing to speak, only growling low in frustration.

Brown brows furrowed as Velvet looked at him, balled up with one fist mostly in the ground, swollen like he’d been using it to punch without bothering to let his aura heal it.

She bit her lip, holding back. Her first instinct was to reach out and take his hand, examine it and have him heal it or take him to the nurse. But looking him over, in the state he was in… she’d seen him angry, she’d seen him acting like an ass and, maybe-sorta-kinda, like a decent person.

She hadn’t seen him depressed before…

He’d only responded to her with a growl, so that wasn’t a good sign, and leaning half-way out of the bushes would definitely get them both caught. So, swallowing her fears, she took the harder road.

Taking the few extra steps she hopped the bushes and took a seat next to him. Not close, or too close, about foot away. Far enough to be ‘safe’ and really it was all the space that could be spared in the small hiding spot.

She looked to the opposite side of him, at a wall really, and tried to keep her ears low so they wouldn’t be noticed. Velvet had become somewhat of an expert at hiding around Beacon so this was all second nature for her.

It was the whole sitting next to a possibly depressed boy, whom she knew could be really angry and scary, in said small hiding space that was the problem.

If he suddenly freaked out or went crazy she’d have to bolt quickly.

Of course, that reasoning brought about her ever-increasing question: - _What am I doing here?_ -

It was something she couldn’t help but ask herself every time she dealt with Cardin. Sure, there were superficial reasons she was here, like her helping him figure out his Faunus side or teasing him as payback. But in a situation like this, she really couldn’t do either, nor did they apply.

He was volatile and hard to read, yet she was sitting next to him. – _What is wrong with me!_ -

“Why…” Cardin’s hoarse voice forced out.

It was the same thing Velvet had been asking herself for the past ten silent minutes.

“Why me?” his voice growled out after a second, “What’d I do to deserve this?” his fist raised and punched the ground again, “What’d I do to _any_ of them! To deserve _this!_ ” another punch, a harsher growl, “I wasn’t fuckin’ doing anything! I was sticking to myself! Doing what they fucking wanted!” punch, punch, punch, “It doesn’t make any goddamn sense!” he sent his fist into the ground, head hitting his knees, “What the hell do they fucking want from me!!”

“Cardin!” before he could hit the ground again, Velvet had reached out and grabbed his wrist, preventing him from hurting himself even further. His fist was bloody, knuckles scrapped raw as he continued hitting despite digging the hole far enough to hit gravel. All he was doing at this point was hurting himself!

He ripped his hand away, refusing to look at her, wrapping it around his knees. She had no right to be here, no right to stop him, no right to _anything_ that dealt with him! “The fuck are _you_ still doing here?”

His voice was cold and distant, and that hurt more than him yelling in fury.

Velvet pulled her hand back, biting her lip, “Y-you ran off… I thought you might need some-… some help?”

“Why?” he finally raised his head, narrow eyes staring ahead, “So you can keep teasing me? Petting my tail? Telling me all that bullshit about how everything’ll be alright?”

“Cardin,” her brown eyebrows furrowed at him, “This isn’t like you…”

“isn’t it?” his face scrunched up with disgust, “Tch, you’re just a stupid rabbit, thinking this bullshit could work…”

Her brows furrowed lower, “You’re the one that started it!” she yelled back, letting her anger slip for a moment, “You’re the one that blamed others for everything that happened to you! Picking on them to fit in!” her hand waved out in the small space they had, “This is what happens!”

He didn’t say anything, still stubbornly looking away.

It made her so mad! Everything about him was so contradictory and he could be such a whiney child! Clinching her own fists, Velvet closed her eyes, taking a moment to rein in her own frustration. – _He’s just being a whiney child… he doesn’t know what its like!_ \- part of her argued, only for the other, sympathetic, side of her to recall the scars she’d seen on his back the first time she saw his tail.

He knew… just not the same…

Velvet just held her fist, annoyed, “Everything you just said, everything you just went through…” there was a deep sigh, long-suffering and frustrated, “That’s what we go through every day… those of us that can’t hide…” she opened her eyes, looked at her hand, opening it slowly as she just let everything go, “It’s the same thing I put up with every day because of you…”

A deep silence hung between them…

“So why are you even here…” it was cold and barely above a whisper.

The bunny-girl frowned, “Because unlike you…” she gripped her hand into a fist again, “I believe in the best of people, I believe there’s something worth all _this_ ,” she waved her hand, “in everyone, even you.”

“There’s no ‘best’ in me,” his voice was barely above a growl, “This is all there is…”

“Cardin, that’s-” she reached out to him. He may have been a jerk but there was a decent guy underneath that, she’d seen it, seen in him someone that… at the very least she could tolerate… and get to know… and maybe hang out with sometimes?

Without even looking he swatted her hand away, “Go away, there’s nothing here for you to waste your charity on…”

Brown eyes went wide, “That’s not-I never-!!”

“I said **_GO!_** ” Cardin curled further into himself. That was all there was to it, he wasn’t any good. Not as a person, not as a faunus, he was just worthless meat for the grinder… there was no reason for him to drag her down with him.

Velvet held her hand, rubbing away the sting from his slap. Tried to think of anything she could say, anything she could **_do_ ** that could get him out of this downward spiral.

But truthfully, she had nothing.

Her primary purpose here, helping him out, had been altruism. Or at least, that’s what she told herself. That she had been doing this to help _him_ , the boy that used to pick on her, figure himself out and through a difficult transition in his life. Try to help _him_ accept what he was and teach him the basics of being a faunus and hopefully get him on the path of redemption to being a better person.

But that wasn’t the reality of it.

She felt pity for him. In a moment of weakness realizing what he was, what his life was like, she slipped and let him in. thought for a moment there was a decent faunus underneath the bully.

Maybe there was… it didn’t matter now.

He wanted her to go, wanted to continue lying and hating himself… continue hurting.

It wasn’t her responsibility anymore.

It wasn’t until Cardin heard the leaves rustle and the little bit of warmth he’d felt in the hiding spot was gone that he bothered to look up.

She was gone. He’d sent her away. And she left him.

The world felt so cold again…

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> been forever since i wrote/posted anything, irl can be a bitch, hope you guys enjoyed!!
> 
> Till next *salute-waves* Sayounara, Mina!!  
> -Ikasury


	6. Loathe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ... and then there was salad.

Loathe

To loathe was to feel an intense dislike or disgust for something, not to be confused with loath which was being reluctant or unwilling to do something.

Cardin loathed himself but was loath to do anything about it.

He rolled his eyes at the terrible wordplay. His head was annoying right now, just throwing words out at him, typically around the theme of disgust and how pathetic he was.

A coward for facing things by himself. A coward for turning away the one person that was trying to help him. A coward for trying to go back to his ‘old’ self and hating himself even more.

Fuck that guy! He liked his goddamn salads!

He was the coward! He was the pussy! He was the one that ruined everything and got him into this mess!

That guy was the asshole that ruined his life!

… while he was just the dumb faunus that didn’t know what to do.

Cardin looked down at his scroll, having been idly browsing recipes for salads.

What was he doing right now?

He couldn’t go back to being the jerk he was because, fuck that guy, he was too uptight and an asshole to everyone… making everything worse.

But he couldn’t continue on with being a faunus. He was still afraid to show his tail to anyone, and the one person that knew about it… that he could be free about it, had just walked out of his life because he’d been angry.

She tried to help him, he threw it back in her face.

Was it entirely his fault? Maybe, but she’d been a jerk too. Everyone else saw this sweet pathetic little faunus girl that let anyone and everyone pick on her with no retaliation, him included. What he saw was a manipulative, vindictive woman that was smarter than she let on and knew how to torment him if she really wanted to. Or maybe that was just his head trying to justify why he hadn’t talked to her in a few days.

It wasn’t like he was avoiding her, if anything she was avoiding him… which was perfectly fine! Not like he wanted to see her anyway!

… wasn’t like they were friends or anything…

She’d never talk to him in public and the one time he tried talking to her Blake nearly bit his ear off. Hell, _that_ was probably why he was on the receiving end of her crazy blonde partner’s wrath! Stupid bullshit like that! Honestly! What the fuck people!

With a growl he closed his scroll, moving to sit up on the edge of his bed. Looking just made him hungry and it wasn’t like the cafeteria was open till dinner… nor would they make anything like this. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to ‘special order’ none of this crap, it was bad enough people were poking fun at his sudden dietary change. Like eating a salad was crime or something… stupid assholes.

Though there had to be somewhere around here that they could make their own food… didn’t a bunch of people use the kitchens to cook when they wanted? Was that allowed?

Better question, would **_he_** be allowed… no one wanted to deal with him; that was made abundantly clear. Hell, even his own teammates were giving him a wide berth.

He was so fucking alone this was stupid.

Glancing around his empty dorm room, staring at the clock on Dove’s desk… wasn’t like he had anything better to do.

“Fuck it, I’m hungry,” so with that inspiring speech Cardin got up and left his room. Worst case the cafeteria was closed…

No, worst case would be someone was there and didn’t let him in…

No, no, no, no… ABSOLUTE WORST case… would be Velvet was there with her whole team ready for payback…

… or it’d be empty and he’d be left alone.

\------

Making his way down to the cafeteria building was easy, what he found wasn’t the worst case scenario… just weirder.

“Hm?” a boy with black hair and pink eyes stared at him as he opened the door to the kitchen. They stared at each other long enough Cardin got uncomfortable and pissed off, only for Ren to shrug and go back to whatever he was doing.

No hit squad, no mob, no no-one around and being alone. Just Lie Ren in a pink apron going about his own business and not caring if he was there.

Somehow this was weirder for Cardin.

The large boy stared as Ren moved about the cafeteria kitchen, seeming to know what was where and continuing unhindered as he made… something. Ren moved about like he was both very familiar with the place and that Cardin wasn’t just standing there staring at him.

He had no idea if this was a good thing or not.

Thankfully Cardin’s stomach growled and decided his next course of action for him.  “Tch,” with a grunt the brunette left the kitchen door, no longer gapping and skulking about for something familiar.

It took him an hour to figure out where the fridge was. HOW THE HELL WAS HE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS WAS A FRIDGE!?! IT WAS **_HUGE!!!_**

Ren had simply pointed towards what Cardin had _thought_ was a big metal wall… only to realize it had a handle and by Monty it was the biggest fridge he’d ever seen!

After that slip up, shoulders hunching and his innate aggression kicking in, Cardin had turned around expecting the pink eyed boy to be laughing at him, pointing and jeering or something about how stupid he was…

Instead the quiet member of Team JNPR was just standing at his own station, rolling out something and seemed to be in his own little world.

- _Stupid_ \- the large boy’s mind told him. Of course no one would care. He wasn’t worth caring about.

With that _delightful_ thought reestablished in his head he headed into the voluminous fridge, grabbing some stuff, getting lost along the frozen aisle, and somehow managed to grab a head of lettuce and a few things that… well, _looked_ like vegetables? Right?

As he walked out of the vault of food he found Ren giving him a raised brow before turning back to his… Cardin wasn’t sure, cookie dough sheet?

The larger boy scrunched up his face as thuggish as he could, glaring with thin indigo eyes and trying to look down at the quiet boy as much as possible.

Ren must not have noticed, since he didn’t so much as shrug at him, just going back to his… whatever, food.

Another 20 minutes and Cardin had the ingredients all in front of him and… was just staring at them.

The hell was he supposed to do to turn all _this_ into a salad. The stuff on his scroll mentioned cutting, but half this stuff didn’t even look remotely like what he recognized. HOW THE HELL WAS HE SUPPOSED TO DO THIS!!

“Knives are on the back wall,” a calm quiet voice called out.

Cardin turned to find Ren just leaning against a metal table across from one of the stoves, back to him, so he had NO IDEA how the creep knew what he was doing.

Still… it didn’t hurt, he supposed.

“Tch,” with a grunt he went over to the back wall, lines of prep tables and a couple with cutting blocks and various types of knives in them. He was so confused.

“Try a chef’s knife,” came the apparent expert’s voice again. From this angle it looked like the black haired boy was asleep.

Cardin just glared at him.

“It’s the largest knife in the set, good for cutting quickly.”

Narrow indigo eyes kept glaring as his hand went to grab the closest one. He just happened to grab the big one, not that he was listening to this weirdo or anything.

Quickly Cardin returned to his station, a stack of veggies and got to work cutting them. That wasn’t hard right? Just use knife, chop, move into a bowl, there salad, right?

Well, not quite.

Pulling the fork out of his mouth he stuck his tongue out and gagged. What kind of monstrosity had he made?!

Looking down in the bowl he saw some green, some red, some brow, lots of white, a few flecks of orange and… well a bunch stuff he figured he’d just throw in cause, c’mon, it’s a salad right?

“Here,” a bottle of a yellow liquid was placed in front of him, “This may help.”

Snapping his mouth shut, the former bully turned to glare at the boy with the pink streak in his hair, absently grabbing the bottle and generously pouring the liquid on his… not-quite-salad.

The smaller boy just gave a smile, before turning to head back to his task.

Cardin’s shoulders slumped. His salad still tasted horrible, markedly better with the… whatever sauce the guy gave him, but of course all he did was be a dick to him. – _The fuck man… aren’t I supposed to be… getting better, or something?_ -

“H-hey… uh, Ren, right?” he could feel his boots shaking, why was he such a pussy when I came to just talking to people?

“Hmm?” the slimmer boy turned enough to raise a brow and show he was paying attention.

The look was more unnerving than it should have been, forcing Cardin to swallow, “Could yo-Could you check this out, see what I did wrong?” before he could chicken out he pushed the bowl in the boy’s face, almost yelling at himself when he almost threw the thing he was so nervous. – _Damnit! Stop fucking things up!_ -

For his part, Ren just blinked at the bowl unceremoniously shoved in his face. But, after a moment to catch himself, he looked over its contents… and sighed, shaking his head, “You have mostly raw root vegetables here,” he looked back up at the boy, “And you’ve left most of the stem on the lettuce leaves, I’m sure it tastes quite tart?”

Cardin could feel an embarrassed blush rush over his cheeks before he looked away in a pout. Fine, he sucked at cooking, screw this, he’d just starve-

“Would you like me to show you how to cut these properly and which ones to use and not use?”

The large boy turned back so fast he almost tossed the bowl across the room. He was sure that wasn’t what he’d heard, and was pretty sure no one, not someone like this guy from Jaune-y boy’s team would… it-it just didn’t make sense!

Ren just gave him a tired smile, lightly taking the bowl from him and going back to his station, dumping its contents and sorting them out.

Cardin just couldn’t help but watch him for a bit. He’d never really noticed Ren much, just that he was on Team JNPR and seemed to be this non-entity that loud Nora-chick wouldn’t shut up about. Dude was seriously about as imposing or noticeable as a pencil… so… well, he just didn’t expect this.

After finishing his sorting, and wiping his hands off on a rag on his apron, he turned to Cardin, making a hand gesture that he come over, which the larger boy obliged, “Alright, I’ve separated out what’s good for a salad, and what’s best left out.” He pointed at a distinctly greener pile to the other that was mostly white with some brown and red bits, “Radishes can be used, but not in great quantities as they override a lot of flavor, potatoes really should never be used, at least raw, as they can cause an upset stomach, and while onions are good for flavor or texture, three different kinds can be a bit overwhelming.”

The large boy just stood there staring, not understanding any of those words.

Ren just continued, smiling as he pat the big guy’s shoulder and turned him to the ‘usable’ pile, “Lettuce is generally the main ingredient, so often is in the largest quantity, the type changes the flavor but this is a basic kind that really all you need to do is cut off the stems, remember, keep the green parts, not so much the white,” and handed him the knife, clearly expecting Cardin to do all the legwork himself.

With a gulp the brown haired boy just took the knife and slide over to the ‘useable’ pile, grabbing a piece and about to go to town on it.

“It’s best to cut along the stem,” Ren pointed out the spine of the leaf, “Cut along it then take off the bottom, unless you like a tarter flavor and more crunch.” The smile was really creepy.

Cardin just did as told. Every time he finished on set of veggies, Ren told him how best to cut, in very basic terms, the next, and then threw it all in the bowl and poured some olive oil on as before.

It tasted so much better, Cardin’s stomach was in heaven.

Ren just gave that quiet smile of his and went back to his stove, pulling out what looked and smelled like a sheet of cookies.

After a while, and Cardin finishing up his salad, he stuck around to watch Ren make another batch of cookies.

It was… interesting to watch. That was it. That was all he was telling himself, he wasn’t sticking around cause… anything, he was just curious what this quiet weirdo was doing!

It wasn’t like he was lonely or anything… and this dude hadn’t told him to leave or anything…

“Is there something on your mind?” Ren quietly asked after a long silence as he started up a new mix of batter.

Cardin’s first response was to scoff and look away, stand up and pace a bit away as if he were going to leave. No, no he had _NOTHING_ on his mind… absolutely _NOTHING_ to talk about… especially this quiet weirdo.

For the longest time the room was filled with the sound of Ren mixing batter.

It was grating.

“Grrah!” with a growl the brunette ran a hand through his hair, turning back to the black haired boy, scowling like a punk and trying to show just _how much_ he didn’t want to be saying this, “that girl on your team, the ginger…”

A black brow rose slightly as Ren turned eerily slowly towards the school bully, “I’m just going to assume you mean Nora.” The boy’s voice may have been low and stance unimposing… but damn did that look give Cardin a chill.

He covered it the best he could. No he was not rubbing the back of his head because he was nervous, “Y-yea… you guys are like… ‘together’, right?”

There was some dismissive sound from the quiet boy, “We’re friends if that’s what you’re asking.”

“R-right… Really?” at least that response was enough to cause the larger boy pause, turning to look at the skinny. There was no way in hell with how loud that girl was and how close they were constantly they were just _friends_ … but that wasn’t why he was asking! If he kept poking, hell the guy might poke back, best to play it safe, “S-so… well…” he looked at the floor, frowning, pissed at himself for not having the guts to just say it, also for even asking, but mostly… knowing he needed the help, “What do you do when you piss her off?”

At the simple question, Ren just smiled, “I make her pancakes.” And as if to prove his point he held up the bowl full of batter he was working on.

Indigo eyes shot up and Cardin just stared. Really? Was it that easy? He could just ask this guy and he’d answer him? Like that? Nothing… nothing else? No teasing, no taunts, no jeers… huh.

Ren just turned around, starting up a griddle, “Usually its for when she messes up too, so really, there’s nothing pancakes can’t fix.” With a sizzle the first batch was started and Ren stood by with spatula waiting.

Cardin was left staring at the guy. Was it really that simple? Could he… could he just… bring her some food and it’d all be… okay?

“I could teach you,” was Ren’s quiet offer, turning enough so that pink eyes met indigo. He was completely serious and again that was very intimidating from someone so normally quiet.

“Uh, nah, man, that’s… that’s fine,” A hand went through Cardin’s hair again, debating about what to do, “I don’t even know if she likes that stuff…”

There was a slight smirk on the smaller boy’s lips as he flipped a few pancakes, “Well, then find something she might like that you can make,” another flip, “It’s not necessarily that it’s their favorite food that matters… just the thought put into it.”

Cardin stared at the guy’s back. Damn, he could be deep. Like what the hell, how could a quiet guy like that, who spent most of his time being dragged around by his crazy ‘friend’ know so much?

Eh, wasn’t like he knew what… what **_she_** liked. Just what she didn’t like. Well, _one_ thing she didn’t like.

He looked down at the bowl in front of him, with the bits left over of his salad.

“Fine!” Cardin shouted at no one, making a stomp-filled trip back to the gigantic fridge.

If he was going to make her a salad, it was going to be a prissy, no meat, **_girly_** salad.

With no GODDAMN carrots!!

\-----

“I have honestly no idea what happened.” Blake laid the words out flatly. She had missed what was apparently quite a spectacle as Yang, being the overprotective older sister-mom-figure she was of RWBY, chasing Cardin around the cafeteria about a week ago. Blake knew Yang, _knew_ her in a way she doubted the blonde understood herself or her sister did, when Yang was worried about something… she was a freakin’ force of nature.

The blonde berserker didn’t listen, didn’t think about what she was doing, just knew _something_ was up and in general that was enough to set her off on her path to… _fixing_ it, whatever **_It_** was. Blake had been on the receiving end of that, so it wasn’t like her partner’s intentions were… ‘bad’ just, well, sometimes misguided.

It had taken her that evening to hear about it and three days to wrangle out of Yang ‘What the hell?!’ to the black cat faunus had been rewarded with about 20 minutes straight of the blonde brawler frantically trying to explain herself and if anyone knew Yang, words and her didn’t quite get along when she was stressed.

But she’d gotten the gist.

Yang had been worried about her, her attitude, body language (which surprised her Yang picked up) and actions had lead her to… well, not _necessarily_ the wrong conclusion, it did involve Velvet and Cardin, but not necessarily in the context that popped up in Yang’s frantic brain.

It had taken Blake a little bit to process this and, knowing what she knew, time to gather up the courage to apologize to _someone_. That landed her in Velvet’s team room while the rabbit faunus’ teammates were out and basically spilling her guts.

“I mean, she-well,” a pale hand went through black bangs trying to put the words straight, “Yang means well, she just, when she gets an idea in her head about something, she can be…” what was the right word here?

“Violent.” Velvet offered flatly. She wasn’t judging Yang, not now, because she didn’t care about the issue. Heck she didn’t even know why Blake was coming to her other than her fellow Faunus just wanted someone to talk to about it. That was it.

“Protective…” Blake’s said with a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping as she turned to her friend, arms crossed and just looked at her, “Look, I can’t say where her leaps in logic came from, but she figured out I was worried about you and well,” amber eyes glanced away, “ _Him_ … I guess,” they turned back to find Velvet not quite catching the bunny girl’s eyes, “but, well, from what she knew… she came to a different conclusion…” Blake dropped down on the bed next to her friend, “I’m… sorry.”

“Why?” a brown brow rose on the bunny girl’s face, “Its not like you did anything.”

“Well,” one of Blake’s covered cat ears twitched, “Someone needed to apologize I guess?”

It was amazing how threatening the sweet innocent rabbit girl could look with a single glance, “I’m not the one anyone should be apologizing too,” the was a small huff as Velvet just crossed her arms, leaning over with her elbows on her knees and looking at the floor, “I have no involvement in any of this. I didn’t do anything. No one **_did_** anything. It just happened, like normal…”

“Velvet…” concerned Blake reached out and placed a hand on her friend’s back, or at least tried to.

The comforting hand was quickly shrugged off, “No! None of this!” with a stomp the girl stood up, taking a few steps away from her friend, “I’m done with it all, it’s over anyway,” her hands were waving about frustrated, “HE wants to be alone to deal with all this, fine! I have nothing to say, nothing to be involved with, so-so-so-!!” she was stuttering, a bit, stomping her foot and turning back to Black with a fury in her brown bunny eyes that honestly somewhat terrified the black cat, “If you want to say anything, go _apologize_ to him! We’re through!”

Amber eyes blinked, “Uh… Velvet?” another couple of blinks as Blake was watching a side of her friend she never knew existed as the older girl started pacing, “This is starting to sound like… uh… well…” all the black haired girl could do was watch, cause there was no way the connections her brain was making were right. She was suddenly starting to sympathize with how her partner must have felt that day.

Arms crossed and still pacing, Velvet’s bunny ears bobbed as she frowned in front of her trying to contain everything she was feeling.

It wasn’t Blake’s fault, she knew that. Blake had just been doing what she felt was right and had no idea how to go about it. Because of what her friend knew about **_him_** had bothered her which resulted in a catastrophe that resulted in where they were now. Blake felt responsible and was trying to do the right thing. She had no idea that that fight with Yang had been a huge turning point for… **_Him_** and resulted in them… well… ‘not speaking’! Yea, that’s how she was going to phrase it because any other way sounded… well… like they broke up or something.

WHICH THEY DIDN’T!!

“Stupid jerk…” with another huff she turned heel again.

“Um… Velvet?” Blake watched her make another circuit, “You want to maybe… _talk_ about…” she waved her hand gesturing to, well, _everything_ that was going on in front of her that didn’t make a damn bit of sense, “… This?”

Velvet paused, one foot up in the air, pouting at the air in front of her before turning to Blake and almost crying, “It’s not fair!”

Amber cat eyes were wide as Blake watched her friend. Not quite processing what was all happening, but well…

“Its so STUPID!” Velvet rubbed her arm across her eyes, clinching her fists and trying to calm down again but the whole idea of what happened with _Cardin_ just riled her up, “I was trying, _TRYING_ to be nice, to help him, to maybe, I don’t know! Make him not **_HIM_** any more so no one would have to deal with what I went through… to reach out and convert the school bully into a decent guy! To-to-ARGH!!” her arms came down and she stomped again, “HE’S SUCH AN IDIOT!!”

\-----

“ _HE’S SUCH AN IDIOT!!_ ”

That was the first thing Cardin could hear that made it through the door.

It wasn’t like he _knew_ Team CFVY’s room, he’d ran by it or stumbled upon or whatever, shut up! He was just here to drop off this stupid salad anyway, wasn’t like he was expecting to see her, or talk to her or nothing! That was stupid! She’d… she wanted to stay away from him!

“ _I tried, I_ **TRIED** _to be nice to him, to show him that things could be different!! But what does he do!?”_

It was like something stabbed him in the heart. Whatever it was he’d had his arm raised, ready to knock on the door but now… just lost all power to hold it up.

Clearly she was talking with someone, _obviously_ about him.

“Tch,” wasn’t like he’d meant to hear anything. Just drop this off, right.

There was a mumble from the otherside, the other person must have said something but he couldn’t quite hear it because they were further away.

While Velvet, she must have been right in front of the door… for all he knew yelling right at it, knowing he was there.

“ _It doesn’t matter, apologizing doesn’t do anything… not at this point… he wants to be alone, go back to being that_ **jerk** _he was… fine… he… he… it’s what he wanted after all!_ ”

- _No its not_ …- his mind couldn’t help but answer.

He was angry, he was frustrated, he’d said the wrong thing cause it was all he knew…

- _How does one say they’re sorry when clearly they’re the one that fucked everything up…_ -

He looked down at the plastic container, his hands shaking, fingers tightening around it.

Ren said to just make her something and it’d be okay.

Clearly he was wrong. Maybe he just didn’t have that kind of chance. Maybe he wasn’t supposed to have that kind of chance.

He wasn’t worth it.

Velvet was right, he was just a jerk after all.

Perhaps he was a coward too, because he turned around with every intention of just leaving, no one there to say anything and he was just never here and what he’d meant to do was nothing that would ever be noticed.

That is until he came across the heavy smell of cigarette smoke and nearly gagged, “The fuck?!”

Coco Adel was standing behind him, just staring at him through her designer shades.

Moving one hand to cover his nose, the junior boy just glared at the leader of Team CFVY, “Geez, don’t you smell that?”

A trim brown brow rose of those intimidating shades, “I’m the one smoking, I don’t really care,” after a second of ignoring the boy’s glare she lowered her shades, glancing down at the plastic container in the boy’s hands, “For Velvet?”

Cardin just growls, looking away.

She stares at him over her shades, measuring the boy Velvet beat up and by all accounts messed with her teammate quite a bit prior. There was nothing threatening about him she saw, “There better not be any carrots,” she flicked her shades back up, “She’s had enough pranks involving them to last a life time.”

And like that it clicked in Cardin’s mind why Velvet had nearly screamed at him about carrots.

It was a commonly held belief that bunny’s like carrots, old cartoons and stories going on about it, to the point it was just a joke. Of course racist assholes like himself would torment a _Rabbit_ Faunus with something like that. It was fucking derogatory.

Gritting his teeth and scrunching his eyes he could barely contain it anymore, why the hell was he so stupid! Why the hell couldn’t he figure that out! Hell, he probably thought about it himself before!

“THERE AIN’T NO GODDAMN CARROTS!” and practically shoved the container into Coco’s hands, “Give it to her, I don’t care…” and grumbled off. Love it, hate it, it didn’t matter to him anymore, he’d caused her enough damage. He wasn’t… he wasn’t…

He wasn’t going to bother her anymore.

\-----

Velvet had jumped at the loud male voice from the other side of the door.

Partly because she recognized it, more so because she hadn’t even realized he was there. It was a bad day indeed if Cardin could sneak up on her. Monty she must have been so distracted… what if she had gone out there!

What if he’d heard her…

What if she **_had_** gone out there?!

Her mind was running a mile a minute with increasing questions and sparking her natural anxiety.

So of course she jumped a foot in the air when her team leader walked in and shut the door. “Eep!!”

Coco for her part just raised a brow at her teammate, completely ignoring as that junior friend of hers was glaring with amber eyes and covering her nose, “Here,” holding her hand out with the plastic container, “I checked it, looks fine.” It wasn’t that Coco expected Cardin to do anything, she was just concerned for her friend, and really… the boy looked too upset and too much of a pussy to tamper with it.

“A-ah, Th-thanks Coco!” Velvet took a deep breathe, taking the container, and glad her team leader was there. Glad she chased him off and even got her food! Bonus!

Coco just shrugged, shaking her head as she walked towards the closet, “I didn’t get it for you.”

Blake, still sitting on Velvet’s bed, and holding her nose because really the smell of smoke from Coco did not help her heightened sense of smell, quirked a brow at that comment from the leader of Team CFVY. If Coco hadn’t gotten the food, which smelled like a salad as her friend opened it up, then that could only mean one other person could have…

One person whom was just yelling outside their door.

Whom Velvet had just been yelling about…

As it struck Blake she stared at her friend in shock, what was she going to do if… after all she’d just said, how hurt she was by what he said, his decision to stop talking to her, to-

Velvet was just staring at the salad.

The stupid, carrot-free salad.

And trying very hard to hold back her tears.


	7. Dislike

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Velvet needs some advice...

Dislike

Dislike came in two forms: to feel distaste or hostility towards something or the _feeling_ of distaste or hostility towards something. The active and passive reactions of distaste and hostility.

At the moment Velvet wasn’t sure which properly applied.

She disliked Cardin, that was a given. He was a jerk. He bullied her and various other Faunus. He was a Jerk, again. He was violent, short-tempered, short-sighted, moody, whiney, pitiful little jerk!

But…

And she hated that _But…_ at this moment with more passion than a thousand burning suns, a feeling she’d never had before in her life, _ESPECIALLY_ for that jerk!

He was hurt. He was lonely. He was vulnerable, misled, and had no idea how to make the connection between what he was, physically, and who he had been before. How to make a whole new identity and accept that everything he’d been taught, how he’d acted, could have been wrong.

She pushed him, a lot she realized, and he’d just… accepted it? Tried? It was something wasn’t it?

He hadn’t… immediately… given up and pushed her away… okay he _HAD_ pushed her away, quite verbally, but she’d just ignored him as in a momentary lapse of sanity she pitied the juggernaut that was her tormentor and saw him for what he was… a fellow Faunus who had been hurt.

That was it.

There was no ulterior motive. No great plan on her part. She had literally no idea what she was doing and it wasn’t until she’d thought about it that that even became an issue.

She saw someone hurt, a kinsmen of sorts, empathized with him and wanted to help him. That was it.

She didn’t see the bully. She didn’t see the boy with the abnormal tail in a family of Humans who had _CLEARLY_ been abused, used, and his entire worldview distorted to the point he couldn’t even look at his own tail and persecuted his own kind because that was the only way he was given any value from people that SHOULD have taken care of him from the start!

Was it society’s fault, sure. Was it his father’s fault, yes! Was it his own fault?

Right now, she didn’t know.

He did bad things, he did mean things and he hurt people…

But he was… trying… right? To be… _different_?

Did she have it in her to… forgive him? To reconcile? To recognize that her efforts, however they started, brought him closer to understanding and accepting himself, helping him become a better person, than ANYONE else in his ENTIRE LIFE! Had before?

… and that dealing with him had revealed, to herself, just how… petty, vindictive, cruel, and in some way hateful she could be?

When push came to shove, humans and Faunus were the same. Physically not entirely, but really underneath it all; the emotions, the torments, the turnaround, the capacity to change and fool one’s self into believing the version of themselves they showed to the world was right… was all the same.

Faunus had quirks, humans were dull, what one had the other covered and really, they could be quite good working together if given the chance.

Team RWBY was an astronomically impossible example of that.

Blake was former White Fang, Weiss Schnee was heiress to the most abusive company towards Faunus to exist, and between those two were a couple of backwater sisters from Patch that didn’t get either’s issues or sides… yet, somehow… they all got along in a bizarre kind of harmony that should not exist.

Even her team didn’t get along _that_ well…

Her being an open Faunus brought issues with _certain_ people, and she’d had her scuffles with Fox, occasionally Coco, and even Yatsuhashi. They hashed things out but it was still there.

She wouldn’t take any of them to the Faunus side of town, and they didn’t take her to some pretty human heavy things, which she honestly didn’t want to deal with.

She had lots more Faunus friends than them, and tended to gravitate towards them when she needed to really get things off her chest, because as a people all Faunus ‘got it’. Humans… not… not really.

Yet, listening to Blake, she heard her friend go on about things that she’d complain to Yang about, and later on things she’d complain to _WEISS_ about, the same girl that used to give her dirty looks or completely ignore she existed because of her ears.

They… got along, somehow.

And while she’d like to say her team worked the same, she’d be lying. Prejudice was a hard thing to break down and get rid of… unless you were Team RWBY and had about a ton of dynamite apparently.

People just didn’t lose those feelings quickly, or their ties…

Maybe, that was why…

Why, she couldn’t _really_ see him past the jerk.

Why, she couldn’t _really_ see him past the tail.

Why she couldn’t really **_see_** him.

On one hand was the human that tormented her, on the other was the wounded Faunus.

Mixing them together was… strange. It was a grey area she was afraid to say that maybe, just maybe, she herself wasn’t quite ready to face yet.

Love-hate. Hate-love.

Somehow she’d come to this… this middle ground.

And she couldn’t decide what to do.

\-----

“Ah, Velvet Scarlatina, please, come in.” the delicate yet stern voice of Professor Goodwitch beckoned the rabbit Faunus to enter her office. She wasn’t necessarily surprised to see the second year student, Velvet was one of the nicer students who helped out with the teachers when an opportunity presented itself, and due to her obvious Faunus heritage more than once she’d been the target of someone’s bullying. Glynda had told the girl her door was always open, and honestly hoped she’d come to the teachers should anything ever go too far, but she always surprised the headmaster’s aide with her reluctance to ‘cause trouble’ and basically handle her problems herself.

Velvet hesitantly entered the room, closing the door behind her. Classes had just ended, so while the students were heading off to take their afternoon break the teachers were prepping for an evening of grading papers or projects or whatever it was that Professor Goodwitch actually graded, footage probably? It didn’t matter, as the rabbit Faunus shook her head, biting her lower lip nervously.

The odd actions that transpired from the moment the girl closed the door to now was… interesting to watch. Glynda hadn’t spent years being a teacher for nothing, she’d seen just about every problem students could come up with, and now before her was clearly a nervous young woman with something weighing heavily on her mind. Generally, that something was quite important, “Please, sit,” she pointed to the chair in front of her desk, “Tell me what’s the problem.”

The bunny eared girl nearly jumped at the command, fidgeting a moment wondering how the professor could know what was wrong before she’d said a word. – _Of course! I came to her without her asking or having any kind of assignment in hand! Clearly there’s a problem!_ \- her ears sunk a bit at her own obviousness, partially wondering why she didn’t bring a few sheets of paper or _something_ to at least pretend she wasn’t coming here for advice. Those thoughts were quickly thrown out as she sighed, taking the offered seat and figured out the best way to word this, “You’re… right, Professor, there is… _something_ I think I might need help with…”

- _Vague-_ Glynda’s face didn’t change one bit from the look of an attentive, yet stern, academic provider. Which wasn’t to say she wasn’t worried for the girl, she just had again, _years_ of experience dealing with troubled students. Her mind was honestly waiting to start checking off boxes on what today’s student drama was.

It was best to remain silent, let the girl get her thoughts out on her own.

“Like… let’s say… um…” Velvet stumbled with her words. What _was_ the best way to say this? Let alone WHAT THE HELL WAS SHE REALLY ASKING HELP FOR?! To help silence her thoughts, and ignore the impatient look the vice headmistress was giving her, the bunny girl coughed into her hand, “Well, hypothetically… what if someone found out someone else was a Faunus?” she swallowed hard when the look on the professor’s face didn’t change, “A-and they were… well, let’s say someone least expected to be one, and there were extenuating circumstances to why they never said anything, let alone _show_ their features, but that just lead them to a form of self-harm and self-loathing that was unhealthy so this first person was trying to help them break out of their shell only in the process finding out they’re kind of really a jerk and the second person is actually secretly not as much of a jerk, and everything feels upside-down!!”

Professor Goodwitch was _still_ just staring.

Velvet took a deep, long breath and let it out, “What would you tell them?”

A slim blonde brow rose as the Professor took a moment to stare at her student. Clearly this wasn’t any kind of _hypothetical_ situation and Velvet was very much asking for her help. – _But clearly there are things she needs to learn first…_ \- with a slight nod Glynda rose from her seat, walking around the desk with her hands behind her back looking both extremely serious and surprisingly sincere, “Beacon, out of the four Hunter Schools, does not require a blood test to prove an applicant’s race, did you know this?”

“Y-yes?” bunny ears bobbed as the girl nodded her head, curious where her Professor was going with this.

The blonde woman gave a sharp nod, “Headmaster Ozpin set this as a standard for Beacon because he understood that some Faunus with smaller traits took advantage of this and hid who they truly were, something no one should ever _have_ to do to survive, but even to this day our current society seems to force it upon the youth, making them think it is a necessity.” Those sharp green eyes turned to the bunny girl, halting her first response, “This is not simply a burden of society’s views upon an individual, but an individual’s own assumptions of what society expects.”

Feeling very small, Velvet wondered why her Professor was looking at her like that, not to mention worded that phrase so specifically. Clearly she meant for her to find some meaning in it but all she could see was something about how society saw her… - _And how I think it sees me as well?_ -

Professor Goodwitch moves on, striding confidently to a small bookshelf on one side of her office, “In my own lifetime things have changed significantly; scroll technology, the towers, Atlas, the technology we use to fight Grimm, yet…” she pauses in front of the bookshelf, looking over it with trained eyes for something specific, “I’m always surprised something as primitive as general racism persists, no matter how evolved we claim to be or whatever true threat looms over us…” she gave a deep sigh, “The times have truly failed again and again to meet my expectations.”

“Professor?” Velvet watched her, curious what she was getting at, let alone the strange dialogue.

When Glynda looked back at the girl there was something strange in her eyes, “despite its prevalence, what you may think, and a few glaring exceptions, things _have_ gotten better,” blonde curls moved as the older woman shook her head, turning back to the book case, “The White Fang, originally, did a lot of good,” she reached out, grabbing a small book from the shelf, “brought the differences in treatment of Faunus and Humans to light in a rather decadent society that conveniently forgot those same Faunus they treated like dirt helped keep the walls up.”

Velvet watched as her Professor stared at the book, it was small and dingy from this angle, couldn’t be more than a few pages. – _A story book? Perhaps a children’s book?_ \- despite what it was she noticed how her Professor was staring at it. There was a significance to this book, something cherished.

When Glynda finally looked up she stared at the younger woman with clear green eyes, “Among Hunters, such differences don’t matter.” She put the book to her side, and strode back to her position, “There should be no difference whether the person next to you is a Human or a Faunus, all that matters is they are there for you as support.” The woman stood firm as she made her way back to her desk, staring intensely, “Hunters and Huntresses need to rely on their teams, their leaders, and everyone around them to survive, particularly in the wilderness. There simply isn’t room for such trivialities like an extra pair of ears or tail.”

Velvet’s bunny ears twitched, making her feel a bit self-conscious. She knew her Professor was right but she’d felt that was untrue in many senses. More often than not her ears _were_ brought up, for one reason or another.

“Some Faunus learned to use their features to their advantage, some Humans learned to embrace such differences to great effect in combat.” Glynda sat on the edge of her desk, staring down at the girl, hoping if she heard anything it would be this, “Most people just honestly don’t think about it.”

“The sad truth, Velvet, is more often than not it’s not an issue until it BECOMES an issue.”

At that Velvet’s brown eyes just stared at the woman. How could she possibly say such a thing? It wasn’t an issue until it became an issue? What did that mean? It made no sense!

There was a deep sigh from the Professor, “for example, it wasn’t until the White Fang became violent and the racists got louder that things were becoming an issue again.” Glynda shook her head, “It truly boggles the mind.”

“B-But Professor, even here-!” Velvet quickly shut her mouth, not realizing she had started protesting until she saw that frown on the assistant Headmaster’s face.

“As a teacher, I don’t honestly care,” Green eyes narrowed behind her half-moon spectacles, “A student is as good as they could prove their worth, both academically and in the field. These are necessary things they need to learn to deal with and separate themselves from if they are going to survive in the world.” She sighed deeply, “Something, even you Mrs. Scarlatina, need to learn as well, if the situation you mentioned is anything to go by.”

Velvet perks up, surprised to be brought up as a source of her own problems.

Glynda stared at the girl flatly, “Ever considered that it is not this ‘second person’ that has the problem expressing themselves or understanding the first, but that the first is bound by their own hangups and expectations of how they view societal views, that is causing the problem?” a slight smirk appeared on the older woman’s face as she watched the girl blush and shrink in her seat, “Even that your own past experiences are hindering your own growth?” she waved her hand, “This ‘hypothetical situation’ you told me about, doesn’t that show as much? A misunderstanding and lack of growth on both parties’ parts?”

Velvet’s shoulders slumped. Of course Professor Goodwitch would see through her stumbling ruse. – _She must have known from the start_ -

“It doesn’t matter what you are, so long as you accept your truest self and believe in that,” she pulled out the book, handing it to the Faunus girl, “Because there is always someone that does, correct?”

“What’s this?” Velvet notices a rabbit on the cover of the thin book, flipping it open to see mostly pictures with a few sentences each.

“An old story I think you might need right now. If not for yourself, then for your friend…” the Professor smiles, waving her hand, “Now go, I have papers to grade.”

And just like that Velvet was shooed out of Professor Goodwitch’s office, confused and with an odd little book in her hand.

\-----

Of all the places to end up reading the book Professor Goodwitch gave her, Velvet found herself at Beacon’s library.

Part of her wanted to say she was looking for Blake. Talk with her friend about all this since the black cat Faunus was the only other person ‘in the know’ about Cardin and she’d already consoled some of her feelings about this whole situation to her.

Then again… that had been the event that was giving her the biggest issue right now. Her ‘complaining’ to Blake that Cardin had overheard, after he’d done something arguably nice for her without provocation.

She had liked that stupid salad.

So tapping her finger, rereading this book Professor Goodwitch had given her for what must have been the third time…

“Argh, I just don’t get it,” Velvet was on the verge of ripping her hair out. It was just a simple story about a toy rabbit being loved, then abandoned, and seemingly out of nowhere being turned into a real rabbit. Because reasons?! Velvet wanted to bang her head on a wall, instead she opted to rub her forehead, “Its just… magic? That’s it?” she was at the point she didn’t even realize she was voicing her thoughts out loud.

“Sometimes that’s all it takes,” a crisp, cold voice idly interjected.

Looking up with a small squeak, Velvet saw the pristine form of the one and only Weiss Schnee, surrounded by a few stacks of books with study material meticulously placed and taking nice, neat, dainty notes. Various shades of highlighter and tabs were used on everything.

Weiss wasn’t even looking at her, still mechanically writing away as the Schnee heiress wrote in perfect penmanship dedicated notes on whatever subject had her attention.

It made Velvet nervous. One that she was here, sitting across from her, and two that she was somehow paying attention to her WHILE writing all those meticulous handwritten and clearly detailed notes.

One of the bunny girl’s ears twitched, “Um, Weiss?” she honestly didn’t know what she expected, but it shouldn’t have been a surprise that the white clad girl from RWBY just continued on with her work, not looking up even when addressed, “When did you…? I mean how long have I been…?” it didn’t look dark out, it can’t have been that long.

“Firstly,” Weiss started, still just going with her notes, “I was sitting here before you,” another note scrawled impeccably, “Secondly, I’ve had to listen to you mull over that book for the past twenty minutes and its been rather distracting.” _That_ got a mild side glance, only a brief tilt from those icy blue eyes before they were back down to her work.

It gave Velvet a chill, sinking slightly in her chair, almost as if to hide behind the book, “O-oh… s-sorry…” she did not remember anyone being at this table when she sat down? Was she really not paying attention?

For some reason, the stars aligned or some dark ritual was cast miles away from here, Weiss Schnee paused. Closing her eyes, the Schnee heiress visibly breathed in then let it out in what could be argued as a _light_ sigh, before setting down her pen, folding her hands in front of her and turning towards Velvet with the most professional business look, “What is the issue, Velvet?”

Velvet’s bunny instincts were telling her to run, this was so weird on so many levels she could not understand why Weiss Schnee, Weiss **_Schnee_** , was even talking to her.

Another calm inhale and light sigh, Weiss started again, “Blake is off corralling Yang for something, I’m sure, as none of us want a repeat of what happened with Cardin,” those sharp Schnee eyes bore into the rabbit Faunus, clearly intent to pick up anything that might give the situation away, “Ruby is finally sleeping after a combination of straight classes on top of an all-night gaming binge and cookie eating contest with her sister, so I’m here making sure she has the right notes for that test tomorrow. So,” lightly, the white clad girl seemed to sweep away all the papers in front of her, clearly making the effort she was putting into this obvious, “I would like to help mitigate whatever problem you are having with this,” a dower glance, “Children’s book, so you can leave and I can get back to my designated responsibility in peace.”

Brown eyes just blinked. It was strange enough that Weiss Schnee was sitting across from her willingly. It was even stranger for her to be so frank about why she was in the library to begin with, an altruistic reason, but at the same time be absolutely blunt about her desire for Velvet to leave but not being a complete dick about it.

It was really bizarre for Velvet as she had been fairly positive that Weiss only marginally put up with her, as a Faunus, because she was friends with Blake and any other instance they’d interacted the black cat Faunus had been relatively between them.

Not knowing how to verbally respond to this in any intelligent way, Velvet just handed the book over to Weiss and waited for her response.

Without a word, scoff, or sign of righteous indignation, Weiss simply took the offered book and quickly read through the short children’s story.

Something must have hit Velvet hard on the head, because she swore by the time Weiss flipped to the last page there was a small, ever-so-tiny, barely-there smile on the pale girl’s face.

Closing the book and putting it down, Weiss passed it back to Velvet, “I always liked this story as a child.”

“You… know it?” the rabbit Faunus couldn’t help the queer look she was giving the Schnee heiress. It was strange enough this whole situation was happening, but to find out Weiss actually read children’s stories as a kid?

That odd smile was still there, “My sister used to read it to me… when she had time, before I could read it myself.” Quickly the look was gone as the Schnee heiress turned her icy eyes back on Velvet, “It was never my favorite, but I do remember it. The simple moral of ‘believing in magic’ or one’s self is the generally held concept for this story.” And like that she went back to her work.

Brow furrowed and face expressing obvious confusion, Velvet just blinked, staring from the book in her hand to the girl across from her, “That’s… it?”

That meticulously scrawling pencil stop and icy eyes turned up, “Was there something else you were looking for?” Weiss was clearly annoyed at the point but for some reason she was still addressing Velvet’s question.

That, along with the book, confused Velvet all the more. Brown eyes blinked as the rabbit Faunus set the book down and just stared at it, mulling over the words and the look Weiss was still giving her.

“Whenever you’re ready,” came that clipped voice. When Velvet looked up Weiss was back to writing her notes, being efficient while the rabbit Faunus tried to get her thoughts straight. It was such a strangely considerate thing Velvet never expected from Weiss unprompted.

That reminded her of that damn carrot-free salad.

With a deep, defeated, sigh, Velvet slumped in her chair and just gave up whatever pretense she didn’t realize she was holding, “Professor Goodwitch gave me this book,” she held it up, scowling at it lightly, “Said I needed to read it to help with the problem I’m having thanks to a… er, _certain_ someone…” her eyes glanced away and she hoped that burning on her cheeks was from being angry.

“Cardin?” Weiss said flatly, still writing her notes.

Immediately Velvet stiffened and sputtered, eyes wide and ears straight up, “I-but-how-what?!” that last part came out as a squeak. - _How does she know?! Blake wouldn’t have said anything!!_ -

That pencil paused only for a moment as icy eyes flatly stared at the upperclassmen. Then Weiss was back into her notes, swapping her pencil for a highlighter, clearly intending to bring attention to something Ruby would probably miss otherwise, “No offense Velvet, but every time you have a problem it seems to come back to him bullying you.”

Unconsciously an angry, almost offended, pout rose on the rabbit Faunus’ face, “He’s not bullying me,” she crossed her arms, “He hasn’t done that since…” her ear twitched. When was the last time she’d had a problem with him? It couldn’t have been more than a month since she saw his tail? Was it?

That unwitting admittance caused a slim white brow to rise and the Schnee heiress to look directly at the older girl, “Is that so.” It was less a question and more a confirmation.

Velvet suddenly felt uncomfortable. Weiss was very hard to read and it suddenly felt like she’d jumped head first into a trap, “Um… m-maybe?”

Those icy eyes didn’t move, the appraising look Weiss was giving her was unnerving on so many levels, “If he’s not bullying you, what is the problem?”

That question sounded very loaded and Velvet wasn’t sure what was the right answer. She could lie, that would be easy, and either deny she’d had any contact with the aggressive boy or say he _was_ still mistreating her… but that would probably make things worse! Yang’s explosive overreaction had proven just what leaving things to others interpret lead to, and Blake was still trying to apologize for it.

The only other option was to tell the truth… to admit, out loud, that she **_had_** been having interactions with the boy. **_Admit_** that these interactions weren’t one hundred percent uncomfortable… even enjoyable on some level… even desired?

Quickly shaking her head she got rid of the errant thought. That wasn’t the problem!

… okay, IT WAS… but that just…

“Argh!” putting her hands in fists, Velvet had to hold them up just to not bang them on the table. Why was everything so frustratingly complicated over something so stupidly simple!

On her side, viewing the complicated stream of emotions evolve on the older girl’s face, Weiss was surprised. Setting her writing utensil down and leaning back, just watching as Velvet tried to figure out the right way to say whatever was bothering her.

“It’s not-he’s not… damnit this shouldn’t be so strange and complicated!” finally giving up, the rabbit Faunus put her hands on the table, making a _light_ bang that still acquired a few ‘shh’s from those nearby that were only acknowledged by her ears twitching towards them. She put her head in her hand, still frowning.

A well-manicured white brow just rose higher, “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you cuss before, Velvet.”

There was an uncharacteristic groan, “Now do you see why this is such a confusing mess for me?” when the bunny girl opened her eyes, finally looking up at her company, she was surprised by what she saw.

Weiss Schnee was smiling, something amused and not in anyway vicious, “Start with what he did?”

“He made me a salad,” Velvet frustratingly admitted, only to look up and see the only response was a raised white brow. Annoyed, the rabbit Faunus added, “It was… nice.”

That white brow remained up, “Cardin did something… nice?” blink, “For you?” another blink as Velvet confirmed with a nod, “And this is what has you so confused you can’t understand a Children’s Book and are here distracting me from taking notes?”

At the blunt assessment, the rabbit Faunus couldn’t help but look up and blink. Weiss was just looking at her, not judgmental or even accusing, maybe only mildly surprised, but overall just ambivalent to her problem. It was strangely comforting, “Um… yes?”

Another one of those light sighs as the white clad girl just shook her head, “I’m suddenly happy that dolt isn’t complicated.”

“Eh-heh,” Nervously Velvet scratched one of her ears, “Any advice?”

Weiss just closed her eyes, scowling in a familiar way, “He’s the one that made the offer by doing something… _nice_ ,” there was a frown, almost like disgust, as Weiss clearly wasn’t sure what to make of using that word in reference to the school bully, “for you. Might as well see what it means or where it leads.” She ended with a shrug, as if not sure of her own advice.

For Velvet that wasn’t very comforting, “Despite what he’s done? Despite how he’s known or what could happen?” she didn’t know why she was asking this. These were thoughts she should have considered before getting brainwashed by that abominably cute tail of his and taking pity on the boy. If anything she knew him better than anyone else here and this was just… confirmation? Justification? An excuse for herself?

When Weiss opened her eyes there was a strangely thoughtful look there, her icy eyes almost seeming warm, “ _Because_ of what he’s done… and clearly trying to do.” She looked down at the book still near Velvet’s hands, “That story may be a bit contrived, but… it does speak of trust. Of trusting and loving someone to the point of devotion and blindness, yet despite that…” an odd almost-smile passed the pale girl’s face, “Despite being abandoned, despite almost fading away, the toy rabbit was rewarded, gaining something they didn’t know they wanted all along.” A strangely warm smile passed the Schnee heiress’ face as she looked at her senior, “He became real and free.”

Brown eyes widened at those last two statements. Velvet looked at the book again, recalling the story and putting it through that perspective.

- _A fake… becoming real… after being betrayed, but trusting in an idea and it coming true…_ \- She wasn’t sure she was willing to use the word ‘love’ like Weiss had, even if the story explicitly stated it was the boy’s love for the toy rabbit that made it real in the end, but Velvet was willing to use the word ‘trust’ in the sense she was now thinking of the story.

From what she knew of Cardin, what _only_ she knew… it sounded just like him. Someone that wasn’t their truest self, their real self and he was trying, trusting in the idea of being someone real.

He was trying to become a Faunus despite… _because_ of what he’d been. A fake human.

That was worth… worth accepting and trusting in, right? Especially since she was the one that started him on this journey. For his sake, and her own, she owed it to him to finish it.

“Thank you, Weiss,” the rabbit Faunus got up, holding the book with a smile on her face, “I think… I think I know what I should do now.” She left without saying goodbye, in too much of a hurry to try and set things right.

She didn’t even notice the curious look on Weiss’ face, and the small smile sitting there.

\-----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> life, canon sucking, and me being generally sulky are the major reasons this has taken a back seat. this was generally my 'blow off steam' fic when working on WYCH and because of my general angst towards that and RWBY canon in general (i'm not a fan of season 4 and 5 -.-) this has suffered immensely... my interests generally moving away to more amusing things also hasn't helped, so i'm sorry to those waiting so long for an update.
> 
> BUT IT IS HERE! so have at it! :3
> 
> both here and over on FFnet this fic has been surprisingly popular, for my works, so i hate to disappoint anyone or leave this one. its concept is something i hold very dear, so i don't like being angsty about external things in my life (*cough*canon*coughcough*) forcing me to ignore it just cause i'm sulking~
> 
> this is the penultimate chap, and since i wrote the next prior to reworking this one FIVE BILLION TIMES!! it shouldn't take much to tweak into a working condition.
> 
> thank you all for enjoying this! i mean this sincerely :3
> 
> till next *salute-waves* Sayounara, Mina!!  
> -Ikasury


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